5 arrested on suspicion of fraud connected to Lincoln charter amendment petitions

The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office in partnership with the Lancaster County Attorney’s Office and the Nebraska Attorney General's Office are investigating three petitions seeking to change aspects of Lincoln’s elections. More than 13,300 of the signatures are suspected to be fraudulent

So far, five individuals have been arrested on suspicion of fraud, said Lancaster County Chief Deputy Ben Houchin.

All of the individuals were out-of-state residents. A press release from the sheriff’s office said the five suspects were arrested in Nevada, Florida, Washington D.C. and Missouri. Several more are outstanding, the release said.

Those arrested were: David A. Johnson, 25; Jessica Davis, 23; Nathan Kirschbaum, 32; Jason Luciano, 32; and Ryan McKinney, 41.

All five individuals are being charged on suspicion of falsely swearing to circulators’ affidavits.

Unsealed court documents reveal that investigators found that each of the individuals’ phones was present in Lancaster County during the time the fraudulent petitions were signed.

The Sheriff's Office believes the circulators were involved in collecting the fraudulent signatures, having those signatures notarized and submitting the petitions for ballot measures.

“Nothing in our investigation makes us believe any political entity is working or affiliated with this. These are people out doing crimes,” Houchin said.

The petitions aimed to create three charter amendments for the City of Lincoln to adjust local elections. One of the petitions hoped to expand voting to certain residents outside of Lincoln – specifically to residents living within the three-mile area surrounding Lincoln.

Another petition aimed to realign the timing of city elections to have them occur in statewide election years. The third petition sought to place term limits on Lincoln City Council members.

The efforts are part of the Good Government Lincoln group, run by former state tax commissioner and state Sen. Tony Fulton.

"We support the referral of potentially fraudulent signatures to law enforcement, and we support prosecution of the fraudsters," Fulton said in a statement. "We take the citizen-led petition process very seriously and appreciate the work the election commissioner did in flagging these irregularities. We look forward to getting answers, and in the meantime remain committed to giving voters a voice on these issues for the November ballot."

Others listed on the ballot question committee registration are Jessica Flanagain, a political consultant and former advisor to Gov. Jim Pillen, as well as GOP consulting firm Axiom Strategies’ Daniel Bass and Zoe Ganzman.

In a statement, Flanagain touted previous successful, passed petitions in Nebraska, such as “Institution of Voter ID” and "Protecting Women and Children.” Both of those initiatives utilized Vanguard Field Strategies, a subsidiary of Axiom Strategies, for signature collecting and field work. Vanguard’s president, Joe Williams, is listed as a team member on Axiom’s website.

Most recently, Vanguard did field services work for the Fairness for Girls petition, according to filings with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission. In total, ballot initiatives have given nearly $6 million to Vanguard since 2024.

Nebraska Public Media News was unable to verify if Good Government Lincoln worked with Vanguard for these three Lincoln petitions. Members of the group couldn’t be reached for comment.

Three of the supporters listed on the petition – Flanagain, Bass and Ganzman – work for Axiom.

Following the announcement of the arrests, Pillen released a statement saying he was “deeply troubled” by the “historic fraud” in connection with the signature-gathering campaigns.

He went on to condemn the Legislature for allowing paid signature gathering 11 years ago.

“The Legislature made a terrible decision in 2015 when it repealed the prohibition on paid signature gathering,” he said. “The results have been Nebraskans being harassed on the street by in-state and out-of-state signature gatherers, skyrocketing payouts per signature, and outright criminal activity.

“I call on the Legislature to reform this system and to restore the ban on pay-per-signature. I’m grateful to the law enforcement who are protecting our election system and investigating this election fraud and expect those responsible at every level to be held accountable to the fullest extent under the law.”

Secretary of State Bob Evnen agreed with Pillen, saying it is time to “address the persistent problems with Nebrska’s election petition signature process.”

He went on to add that he will work on legislation to “bring order to this chaos.”

The Nebraska Attorney General’s office also released a statement Friday, saying it will continue investigating the alleged fraud.

“The Office of the Attorney General takes petition fraud allegations seriously and will work with partnered agencies to root it out wherever it may be found and bring those who commit it to justice," the statement said. "We are committed to protecting the integrity of the petition process and maintaining public trust. When credible information arises, we dedicate the resources needed to examine each situation thoroughly. Our office enforces election laws without bias, fear, or favor.”