A former state senator and opponent of an effort to legalize medical marijuana in Nebraska is suing to stop the certification of two petitions that would put the matter before voters this November.
John Kuehn, a former state lawmaker from Heartwell who now serves as co-chair of Smart Approaches to Marijuana Nebraska, also asked a judge to bar Secretary of State Bob Evnen from certifying the results of the Nov. 5 election related to the initiatives.
Kuehn
Courtesy photo
The lawsuit was filed Thursday — on the eve of Evnen certifying the general election ballot and a little more than a week before ballots are to be sent to overseas absentee voters — in Lancaster County District Court.
Along with Evnen, the complaint names Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana sponsors Sen. Anna Wishart and former Sen. Adam Morfeld, both of Lincoln, as well as campaign manager Crista Eggers.
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Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana submitted more than 114,000 signatures on each of its two petitions on July 3, the deadline for initiative petitions in this current election cycle, following a campaign that began a year ago.
On Aug. 30, Evnen said both petitions had collected the valid signatures of at least 86,499 Nebraskans, or 7% of registered voters, including 5% of voters in at least 38 of 93 counties.
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana met the 5% threshold in 51 counties, according to the secretary of state’s office, but Evnen said election officials would continue reviewing signatures until reaching a total equal to 110% of the raw number needed.
The petitions have yet to be officially certified by Evnen’s office ahead of the Sept. 13 deadline.
Kuehn, in the lawsuit, said he requested the signature pages submitted by Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana on Sept. 3, to determine whether or not there were grounds to challenge the petitions in court.
Evnen’s office provided the signature pages from Nebraska’s three largest counties — Lancaster, Douglas and Sarpy — the next day, Sept. 4, but informed Kuehn’s attorney, former state Sen. Andrew La Grone, that more time was needed to produce the remainder.
According to the lawsuit, the secretary of state estimated the other signature pages would not be available until Sept. 11, citing a “significant difficulty or extensiveness of the request.”
Kuehn attempted to strike a deal with the secretary of state’s office on Sept. 5, the complaint states, offering to pay for the cost of delivering the signature pages from the counties where they were still under review, but Evnen did not respond to the request.
On Thursday, Kuehn’s lawsuit said the signature pages from eight counties have not been turned over, which he said has denied him his rights under state statute to challenge the petitions.
“As of this filing, due to the secretary’s conduct, (Kuehn) does not know all of the facts about the signature pages of the petitions but has strong reason to believe there is a valid legal sufficiency challenge,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit also alleges a review of the signature pages produced by Evnen found “numerous signatures” — the complaint does not state how many — were “unlawfully accepted” by the secretary of state.
Kuehn said some of the accepted signatures were from individuals who are not registered to vote, signed the petition previously, signed it before the petition was in circulation or after it was due, or contained information that did not match what was in their voter file.
If those potentially invalid signatures were struck, Kuehn said, he had “good reason to believe that there will be an insufficient number of signatures” to meet the constitutional requirements to appear on the ballot.
The complaint also accuses Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana of failing to include Wishart’s full address in its sponsor statement.
It also says the petitions violate the state’s single-subject rule, invoking a rule that sunk a previous medical marijuana initiative in 2020.
The first initiative seeks to enact legal protections for doctors who recommend cannabis to their patients as well as for patients who use cannabis for medical purposes.
The second initiative would create a legal system for the production, supply and distribution of cannabis for medical reasons in Nebraska.
The lawsuit also accuses the petitions of violating the separation of powers by creating a new regulatory body, divesting the Legislature of its constitutional duty.
In a statement, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana (NMM) said it looked forward to the measures being voted on this fall.
“Secretary Evnen declared that both NMM initiatives collected enough valid signatures to be certified. We are confident NMM satisfied all legal requirements and gathered the required signatures to qualify for placement on the November ballot,” the ballot campaign said.
The late-hour lawsuit marks the latest attempt to block Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana from the ballot.
In 2020, Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner said a broader measure circulated by the advocacy group violated Nebraska’s single-subject rule. The Nebraska Supreme Court, on a 5-2 vote, agreed and had the initiative tossed from the general election ballot.
Two years later, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana fell about 8,000 signatures short of the total needed to qualify for the ballot following a grassroots effort to collect signatures.
Earlier Thursday, Attorney General Mike Hilgers announced an online press conference for Friday morning to discuss what his office said was “uncovered falsification of voter signatures in the petition process.”
It was not clear if the attorney general’s findings related to the petitions circulated by Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana.
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