Citizen groups advocating for a number of causes will turn in petitions Wednesday

Citizen groups advocating for a number of causes will turn in petitions today in hopes of getting on the November ballot. Workers with the Nebraska Secretary of State's Office will be on hand to collect the stacks of petitions being turned in.

It’s been difficult to avoid the packs of petition circulators outside public events around the state.

Activists on both sides of the abortion issue are working on measures for the 2024 ballot. One pro-abortion rights group is aiming to expand access until fetal viability, while another initiative wants to enshrine the state's current 12-week ban. A third group aims to outlaw all abortions by granting personhood to embryos and fetuses.

They'll all need to turn in just over 123,000 signatures on Wednesday. None of the groups were sharing their progress, but said they were working hard to collect signatures.

A petition to let voters replace property, income and corporate taxes with a consumption tax failed to collect enough signatures to make the November ballot, according to Nebraska Examiner. Organizers failed to collect the required 124,000 signatures before Wednesday’s deadline.

And for the third time, supporters of legal marijuana for medical purposes want to get the issue on the ballot.

Heading into the final weekend push seeking signatures, Crista Eggers with Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana said the group needed 15,000 additional supporters to sign.

To change the Nebraska marijuana laws with a ballot initiative, the supporters need nearly 90,000 registered voters to sign the petitions being circulated. To ensure there is statewide support for an election, they must also get the support of at least 5% of the voters in 38 of the state’s 93 counties.

Once the signatures get turned in today, the Secretary of State's Office must do the counting and determine if the required minimum number of registered voters chose to support the cause with a signature.

A group hoping to repeal a state law that provides vouchers to pay the cost of a private school education has another two weeks to find enough signatures supporting their referendum. Support Our Schools is petitioning to repeal part of a law giving the State Treasurer $10 million for private school scholarships. Unlike other petitions, the group has until July 17 to collect signatures because referendums seeking to repeal laws have 90 days from when it was passed to circulate.