NE Secretary of State seal (sos.nebraska.gov)LINCOLN–(KFOR July 4) The Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office received five initiative petitions for signature verification. The deadline to return completed initiative petitions for signature verification was July 3, 2024. Below is a list of initiative petitions filed and returned to the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office. Petition Sponsors’ estimate of signatures collected Nebraska Medical Cannabis Patient Protection Initiative 114,367 Nebraska Medical Cannabis Regulation Initiative 114,596 Protect Women and Children Constitutional Amendment 205,344 Protect the Right to Abortion Constitutional Amendment 207,608 Paid Sick Leave Initiative (Returned June 27, 2024) 138,000 Five additional initiative petitions were authorized for circulation but were not returned for signature verification. Referendum petitions are not due back until July 17, 2024. “Nebraska law outlines a thorough process for verifying signatures on petition pages,” Secretary Bob Evnen said. “County election commissioners and county clerks will be vigilant about ensuring each signature accepted will be that of a Nebraskan currently registered to vote in our state.” Petitions seeking to create a constitutional amendment needed to collect valid signatures from 10% of registered Nebraska voters. Petitions seeking to create a new state law needed to collect valid signatures from 7% of registered Nebraska voters. Every petition needed to meet the distribution requirement – valid signatures from at least 5% of registered voters in 38 counties. The percentages will be based off a voter registration list processed by the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office on July 5, 2024. It will take several weeks to verify signatures. The Secretary of State’s Office will paginate each petition page and distribute petitions to county election offices. Upon receiving petition pages, county election offices will have 40 days to verify signatures. More information on the signature verification process can be found in Nebraska Revised Statute §32-631. Once the signature verification process is completed, county election offices will send petition pages back to the Secretary of State’s Office. The Secretary of State’s Office will total the number of valid signatures and determine if constitutional and statutory requirements were met. More information on the entire petition process can be found in the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Initiative and Referendum Petition Guide.