School vouchers referendum to appear on Nebraska ballot

LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) - Secretary of State Bob Evnen’s office on Thursday certified the petition for a partial referendum on the vouchers bill put forward as a replacement for Nebraska’s “school choice” law.

Evnen’s office instructed county election officials to cease signature verification once they hit the 110% threshhold required by Nebraska law. The state confirmed Thursday that Support Our Schools officials had submitted at least 68,184 signatures from across the state — about 6,200 more than required; and that the verified signatures represented at least 5% of registered voters in 60 Nebraska counties.

Last year, the organization submitted enough signatures to put LB753, known as “school choice,” on the ballot for this November. This year’s petition aims to partially repeal LB1402, which the Legislature passed in April to essentially establish a back-up plan for “school choice” by directly earmarking state dollars for private school scholarships.

In order to appear on the ballot, the partial referendum needed verified signatures from at least 5% of registered Nebraska voters, as well as 5% of of registered voters in at least 38 counties.

In mid-July, Support Our Schools Nebraska turned in more than 86,000 signatures for the petition, which required about 62,000 signatures. The Secretary of State said Friday that the state had verified that petition surpassed that minimum requirement, and that those signatures represented at least 5% of 57 counties, which was 19 more than required. Support Our Schools says they had collected the required number of signatures from 60 counties.

Thursday’s release also noted that the Secretary of State’s office had received one request to have one name removed from the petition.

State and county election officials are still processing the two medical cannabis initiatives, the release states.

Nebraska’s ballot must be finalized by Sept. 13.

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Clarification: This story was edited to clarify the petition for a partial referendum on school vouchers and its correlation to an existing law on “school choice.”

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