Nebraska Supreme Court judge rules Lincoln must add 3 petitions to November ballot

A Nebraska Supreme Court judge said Friday that the city of Lincoln has to put three charter amendment petitions on the November ballot.

Judge William Cassel didn’t provide reasoning but ordered that city officials submit and certify the three petitions, according to a filing obtained by the Nebraska Examiner. He did write that the city has until Monday at 9 p.m. to provide an answer as to why a peremptory writ — or a final court order — shouldn’t be established.

Those petitions were circulated by the Good Government Lincoln group, which is seeking to make changes to Lincoln elections.

Previously, Lincoln City Attorney Yohance Christie said the three petitions wouldn’t be on the ballot. His reason was that the group did not turn in petitions in enough time for the city to put them on the ballot.

That resulted in pushback from Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, who filed the lawsuit against Lincoln City Council members.

Hilgers sent a letter to Lincoln officials, calling on them to add the petitions to the ballot. He also wrote an opinion at the request of Lincoln-area Sen. Beau Ballard, who proposed a bill similar to one of the petition’s goals: allowing some people outside of Lincoln a vote in local elections.

Hilgers filed the lawsuit Thursday, with a quick response from the courts due to a Tuesday deadline to get the petitions on the ballot.

The tight timeline comes after more than 13,000 signatures came back as suspected fraud in the group’s first efforts to get the petitions on the ballot.

Seven paid circulators have been arrested in that case. Three of those individuals are in custody in the Lancaster County jail. Those initial petitions and four statewide petitions are currently under investigation.