Four Petition Initiatives May Be On 2022 Ballot

By Gordon HopkinsFour possible initiatives may be on the ballot in the 2022 midterm election.Thursday, July 7, was the deadline to submit petition signatures. There were originally 16 petitions being circulated for the 2022 election. As of now, it appears that two have qualified and another two are in the middle of a court battle to determine eligibility.Nebraska is one of 24 states that allow citizens to initiate legislation through the petition process. The petition process can be a powerful tool for bypassing the state government when an initiative is popular with voters but not necessarily with those in power. In recent years, both casino gambling and expanded Medicare coverage have become law in Nebraska despite vehement opposition by Governor Pete Ricketts but were approved by voters.Final eligibility has not yet been determined as the Secretary of State must now verify those petitions.The petitions that appear to have enough signatures to qualify are the Voter ID Constitutional Amendment, the Nebraska Minimum Wage Initiative and two which focus on medical marijuana, the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Patient Protection Act and the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Regulation Act.Voter IDThe Voter Identification Initiative would amend the Nebraska Constitution to require a valid photographic identification (ID) in order to vote.Currently, voters are not required to present identification in order to vote in Nebraska. However, registrants are required to have a Nebraska driver’s license or state-issued identification card to register online. The information is checked with the Department of Motor Vehicles and the signature is retrieved and added to the voter application. Without a state-issued ID, registrants are required to submit proof of a current address, such as a copy of a utility bill or bank statement, and to sign a paper application.The amendment would leave regulation of photographic identification up to the Nebraska State Legislature and does not specify how it would be implemented. FJN spoke to Senator Tom Brandt, District 32, about the proposed amendment and he cited this as a concern, “I’m not opposed to that. The question is, what’s that going to cost the state of Nebraska? You know, if it’s going to cost us $2 or $3 million to implement that. I would assume the voter ID will pass, and that the state will be obligated to provide IDs.”Brandt noted there are a lot of Nebraskans that do not have IDs.“So, if you think about maybe an older person that has lost their license, maybe somebody lost their license, because of a DWI (Driving While Intoxicated). I mean, everybody goes right to immigrants, but there’s a high percentage of our population that don’t have IDs,” said Brandt. “Then if you don’t have an ID, you aren’t going to get a vote. So then, if that ID costs 10 bucks, is that on the individual to pay for the ID or, because the state law mandated that, does the state? That’s my concern.”Brandt added, “I would suspect the state is going to because that’s happened in other places.”Because the proposed initiative leaves the specifics of regulation to the Legislature, there are questions that may not be answered unless and until the initiative passes.Brandt said, “Also, if you have active military that are residents of the state of Nebraska that are on a combat tour, how are you going to do voter ID?”Nebraska allows people to vote via mail. There is already a system of checks and balances in place to prevent more than one person voting on the same ballot or to prevent a person voting twice, by mail and in person. Kristina Riggle, Jefferson County Clerk and Election Commissioner, spoke to FJN and explained, “They have to request a signature on the application that gets verified against their signature in the record. You issue the ballot; they also have to sign the back of that ballot when they return it. That’s logged into our system. When we read those rosters for the polling places, they’re flagged as already having voted.”Riggle added, “Nebraska has a great voting process.”Brandt concurred, “Nebraska runs very good elections. Our Secretary of State. There is not one incident of fraud in the state of Nebraska.”FJN reached out to the Nebraska ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). ACLU Communications Director Sam Petto said, “The short of it is that a voter ID restriction would prevent otherwise eligible Nebraskans from voting. These restrictions in other states have been shown to reduce participation. They also present a significant hurdle to people with disabilities, the elderly or anyone in rural areas without access to a car or public transportation. It’s also important to note that people of color disproportionately lack ID.”Minimum WageThe minimum wage in Nebraska is currently $9 an hour, and has been since 2016. The minimum wage was $8 an hour in 2015. For those workers who are compensated by tips, such as waitresses, waiters and bus persons, the minimum hourly rate of pay is $2.13 per hour. The sum of the $2.13 per hour plus all tips given to the individual must equal or exceed the required minimum wage for all hours worked.Each state sets its own minimum wage. However, that wage must meet or exceed the federal minimum wage. The national minimum wage was created by Congress under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in 1938. The first minimum wage, established during the Great Depression, was 25 cents an hour. Currently, the federal minimum wage for covered nonexempt employees is $7.25 per hour.For the past few years, there has been a movement across the country to raise minimum wage to $15 an hour. In Nebraska, there is a petition circulating to increase the state’s minimum wage.Nebraska is one of 24 states that allow citizens to initiate legislation through the petition process.The proposal, called the Nebraska Minimum Wage Increase Initiative, would eventually increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour, but not immediately. Instead, the increase would occur incrementally according to a set schedule: $10.50 on January 1, 2023; $12.00 on January 1, 2024; $13.50 on January 1, 2025; and $15.00 on January 1, 2026.After that, the increase would be adjusted annually thereafter to account for increases in the cost of living.The sponsors of this initiative are Nancy Williams of Omaha, Zeke Rouse of Lincoln and Senator Terrell McKinney (District 11) of Omaha. McKinney issued a statement in August of 2021 when the initiative was announced, “Poverty is at the root of many of the issues we are trying to tackle in our state; one way to begin decreasing poverty is to raise the minimum wage and change the cycle of surviving the good life to living the good life.”Ken Smith, the Economic Justice Director at Nebraska Appleseed, a non-profit public interest law firm, said, “Workers in low-wage jobs and their families benefit the most from these income increases, reducing poverty and income inequality. Nebraskans should not have to choose between paying their rent and buying groceries. We all want to be able to provide for our families and raising the minimum wage is an important step toward making that a reality for many underpaid Nebraskans.”Governor Ricketts has publicly opposed the initiative. A spokesperson for the Governor issued a statement in 2021, “The Governor is especially concerned about how this could impact jobs in small towns and underserved communities.”The COVID-19 pandemic has led to, or contributed to, major staffing shortages throughout the U.S. Nebraska continues to see record unemployment. Bryan Slone, president of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce, noted that the worker shortage has already forced many employers to increase wages and suggested raising the minimum wage may become a moot point, “It is not clear whether this effort would have much of a practical impact.”Medical MarijuanaUnder current Nebraska law, possession of one ounce or less of cannabis (marijuana) is an infraction, possession of between an ounce and a pound is a misdemeanor and possession of more than a pound is a felony. The Nebraska Medical Cannabis Patient Protection Act and the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Regulation Act would change that, but only when prescribed for medicinal purposes.The Nebraska Medical Marijuana (NMM) campaign turned in signatures for these two initiatives. However, simply having enough signatures is not enough, according to Nebraska guidelines. It makes a difference where those signatures come from. There is a requirement that a petition has to have signatures from 5 percent of voters from at least 38 of Nebraska’s 93 counties.The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Nebraska and NMM filed a lawsuit against the state, claiming that the requirement was unconstitutional, as it gives voters in highly-populated counties less power than those in rural counties.Nebraska State Senators Anna Wishart (District 27) and Adam Morfeld (District 46) are co-sponsors of the petitions.According to Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, an organization led by Wishart and Morfeld since 2020, “We believe patients with serious health conditions should be able to use medical cannabis with the recommendation of a doctor. An overwhelming majority of Nebraskans agree.”One of the staunchest opponents of legalizing marijuana in Nebraska, medicinal or otherwise, is Governor Pete Ricketts, who said, “If you legalize marijuana, you're gonna kill your kids. That's what the data shows from around the country, and that's why it's dangerous to go around the established process.”Wishart responded to the Governor's claim by saying, “There are few things in this world that won’t kill you if you do or take too much. The cannabis plant is one of those. Facts matter.”Morfeld Tweeted, “It’s really hard to have a reasonable conversation with someone like this.”According to a report by the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) from 2017, “No deaths from overdose of marijuana have been reported.”

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