The week's best quotes on debates, Dublin, travel and TV

 Petitions to place ihttps://www.profitablegatetocontent.com/gg1qiub0?key=26911072ec2d6388a328b43de2ea88cdssues on the ballot, overturn decisions and laws, and impeach elected officials represent the power of the people to make their voices heard and their will reflected in state and local laws and government.

This is a crucial right in Nebraska because of the state's unique unicameral legislature, which functions as a "second chamber" that occasionally allows citizens to overturn legislative decisions. such as abolition of the death penalty, and in others, such as Medicaid expansion and gambling casino gaming, forcing the state to enact a policy rejected by the legislature and governor.\ Too often, however, the power of the people is short-circuited as petitions are denied by the Secretary of State in statewide or local campaigns, by election commissioners or county clerks, and in some cases by the Nebraska Supreme Court, for reasons other than obtaining enough qualified signatures. For example, a petition to legalize medical marijuana in 2020 has collected nearly 200,000 signatures. But the Supreme Court barred the measure from going before voters, ruling that the language violated the state's single-subject rule. It collected enough signatures for medical marijuana again this year, but ran into petitions to get the signatures of 5% of registered voters in 38 of the state's 93 counties to get on the ballot. That case remains tied up in federal court, with circuit breakers challenging the constitutionality of the individual districts' requirements. Recently, Lancaster County Election Commissioner Dave Shively ruled that "Let Lincoln Vote" petitions for the city's proposed fair ordinance could not be verified because they did not include a statement indicating whether the petition distributors were paid or volunteered, as required by state law. Each rejection, including those from other campaigns that have had their petitions revoked, thwarts the will of the voters through bureaucratic rules and regulations based on state laws that seem designed to make the petition process as difficult as possible and preserve power. legislature and self-government. However, there are solutions to end most rejections for reasons other than getting enough signatures. The simplest of these would establish a process whereby petitions are submitted to either the Secretary of State or local election officials for review before they are distributed. Such reviews could then point out problems with the petition's language — such as two entities and missing statements about paid or volunteer circulators — and allow organizers to craft a petition that would be approved when submitted for signature verification. As for the county-by-county requirement, state law could change to change the signature requirements, either by simply setting a statewide percentage required, which would be ideal, or by expanding the areas counted for signatures, for example, by requires a percentage of signatures by congressional district rather than county. Both would change the current undemocratic inequality that gives a single voter in Arthur County the same ability to qualify to vote as 1,216 signers in Douglas County. These changes, which would require legislative and municipal action and funding, would together solve many of the problems of the petition process and thereby restore and preserve the people power that is a key element of our state and local democracy.