Lincoln, NE: A judge has set a trial date to hear arguments brought by litigants who oppose the certification of a pair of medical cannabis access ballot initiatives.
State regulators affirmed on August 30th that advocates Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana had gathered the requisite number of signatures to place the measures before voters. Opponents filed litigation shortly thereafter, alleging several thousand signatures should have been determined invalid because of clerical errors or malfeasance.
The judge has requested to hear evidence substantiating litigants’ allegations on October 29th. If substantiated, the trial will continue, and representatives of the campaign will have the opportunity to respond on October 31st. If the case extends beyond that date, it is unlikely that the issue will be resolved prior to Election Day.
Early voting has already begun in Nebraska and paper ballots have already been printed containing both ballot questions.
In a prepared statement responding to the allegations, the Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana campaign said: “It is appalling that the State of Nebraska is working to silence and disenfranchise the voices of tens of thousands of Nebraskans based on primarily unsubstantiated technical issues. These issues have absolutely nothing to do with the more than 115,000 voters who signed each of these petitions, or the dedicated patients and Nebraska citizens who worked hard to get the issue on the ballot.”
The two proposed ballot measures (Initiated Measures 437 and 438) are complementary. The first permits qualified patients to possess and use cannabis. The second measure regulates the production and distribution of cannabis to authorized patients. Advocates had to frame the issue as two separate ballot questions so as not to run afoul of the state’s ‘single subject’ rule. In 2020, the state Supreme Court invalidated a similar stand-alone measure for addressing issues that it deemed were “not naturally and necessarily connected to the [initiative’s] primary purpose.” A 2022 effort failed to obtain sufficient signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Voters in Florida, North Dakota, and South Dakota will be deciding on adult-use legalization measures this fall.
Additional information is available from Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana. Further Election 2024 coverage is available from NORML.