Nebraska’s Republican attorney general, Mike Hilgers, expressed concerns on Friday about potential invalid signatures submitted by supporters of two medical marijuana legalization measures. Hilgers mentioned during a Zoom news conference that a petition circulator from Grand Island faced a felony charge for fraudulent signatures on 38 pages related to the initiatives. Despite the issue being local, Hilgers suggested wider irregularities with many other signatures.
Questions arose about the timing of Hilgers’ announcement, which coincided with the last day for the secretary of state’s office to certify initiatives for the November ballot. While Hilgers and other conservative Republicans are against the measures, he stressed that any initiatives’ petitions would undergo similar scrutiny.
Hilgers stated that he informed Secretary of State Bob Evnen about his office’s investigation findings. However, Evnen, also a Republican, would need to conduct his analysis. Hilgers warned that even if the initiatives received certification for the ballot, potential court intervention could lead to their removal, halt voter counting, or invalidate new laws due to irregularities.
Efforts to reach Evnen’s spokesperson for comments on his plans remained unanswered at the time. Hilgers indicated ongoing work in identifying irregularities and emphasized that scrutiny was ongoing.
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana collected over 114,000 signatures for each of the two petitions, surpassing the required approximately 86,000 signatures. The petitions aimed to legalize medical marijuana use and regulate the medical marijuana industry within the state. As of now, there were no immediate responses from Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana.
