Advocates for All Nebraskans – the group behind a citizen petition to mandate employment of at least 450 police officers in Lincoln – paused its campaign Thursday afternoon amid the “toxic political environment currently consuming Lincoln.”
In a press release, the group expressed concerns over the perceived integrity of the ballot initiative process.
“The citizen petition process is a sacred constitutional right and the pure voice of the people to make an even better Nebraska,” the release said. “It was created to give everyday residents a direct civic avenue to shape their communities when local government fails to act.”
Another Lincoln petition drive ignited controversy last week when county and state authorities began investigating alleged signature fraud.
Three election-related city petitions failed to meet the threshold to make it on the November general election ballot after over 20,000 signatures were rejected by the Lancaster County Election Commissioner’s Office, including more than 13,000 suspected of being fraudulent.
Five people have been arrested on suspicion of fraud, and county authorities and the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office are investigating the rejected signatures.
Advocates for All Nebraskans said this scandal caused the group to make a “strategic pause” in gathering signatures and promoting the petition.
“The local petition landscape is tainted. We are witnessing a concerning pattern of destructive political efforts run purely for profit—where petition drives are no longer about the principles/values or genuine opportunities for authentic citizen engagement,” its statement reads.
Eric Underwood, an authorized agent behind the petition, said the timeline to gather signatures before November election deadlines became unrealistic due to these concerns.
“We would have continued to at least use volunteers, as well as start our own paid circulator version of this,” said Underwood, a former chairman of the Nebraska Republican Party. “Over the last two weeks, we didn't feel comfortable putting in the effort – let alone the individuals that we were looking at hiring, or the whole process – as we were trying to extrapolate how this was going to play out from the other citywide petitions.”
Underwood said the petition organizers would seek another election cycle or special election to pass the ballot initiative.
The civic engagement and policy organization also said its members and petition supporters had encountered “hostility” and “active resistance” from Lincoln city leadership.
“They were not in much favor of having charters or ordinances amended by the people, and that's disappointing because the people do have – especially in Nebraska – the Unicameral mindset, where there is one chamber that does lawmaking, there is a second chamber to the entirety of statutes, ordinances, charters, constitutions – and that is the people,” Underwood said.
Lincoln City Council members could not be immediately reached for comment.
Advocates for All Nebraskans said its concerns over adequate police staffing have not changed.
“A growing Capital City of more than 300,000 residents cannot indefinitely operate with police staffing that has failed to keep pace with its population and responsibilities,” the group said. “If Lincoln does not seriously address this issue now, the gap between the demands placed upon our officers and the resources available to them will only become more difficult — and more expensive — to correct.”
The group claims 450 full-time police officers would help the city meet baseline public safety demands by improving the officer-to-citizen ratio.
The petition is supported by retired Nebraska State Patrol Superintendent Tom Nesbitt and former Lincoln radio host Doug Fitzgerald.
It was filed with the city clerk in June. To make it onto the November ballot, it would have needed signatures from registered voters totaling 5% of the last city general election turnout.
The City of Lincoln has questioned the legality of the petition. When the petition drive was announced in June, Major Leirion Gaylor Baird’s chief of staff Rick Hoppe said the new hires would cost up to $13 million annually, which could require property tax increases or cuts to other city services.