by Amy Wilding-Fox
Cannabis advocates in Nebraska are celebrating an important win in federal court when a judge ruled in favor of granting their request of a preliminary injunction, blocking Secretary of State Robert Evnen from enforcing a requirement for petitions to have signatures from 5% of registered voters in each of the 38 counties.
ACLU and Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana sued the state, saying the requirement violates the "one person, one vote" rule. Their theory is that it gives fewer registered voters of a sparsely populated county more say than registered voters of a more populous county
To add to that, a major donor passed away cutting funds to hire paid canvassers. This ruling will make it so that total number of eligible signatures can come from anywhere in the state, as long as they still reach the count equivalent to that of 5% of each county. Now, the heavier populated areas can be where the majority of the signatures come from, reflecting better Nebraska’s total population.
District Judge John Gerrard wrote "the State of Nebraska is absolutely free to require a showing of statewide support for a ballot initiative—but it may not do so based on units of dramatically differing population, resulting in discrimination among voters."
For the moment, there is still hope that legalization of marijuana will be on the ballot come November 2022. Signatures are still being gathered and tallied but could eventually be for naught. The ruling is now in process of appeal by the state of Nebraska.
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