Brett Lindstrom (Courtesy photo)LINCOLN, Neb. (Aug. 14, 2026 – KOLN) – The nonpartisan candidate for governor, Brett Lindstrom, failed to meet his signature threshold to appear on the 2026 general election ballot after more than 2,000 signatures were found to be invalid, according to the Nebrask a Secretary of State’s office. State officials announced on Friday that Brett Lindstrom did not meet the requirements to appear on the 2026 general election ballot. The Lindstrom campaign submitted 5,765 signatures, of which 3,358 were validated. According to the secretary of state’s office, candidates require at least 4,000 valid signatures from registered Nebraska voters to be placed on the ballot by petition. Of those, there must be at least 750 from registered voters in each of the three congressional districts. State officials said during the signature validation process a significant number of signatures were found to be fraudulent. A number of the submitted petition pages containing fraudulent signatures had been circulated by three people who were arrested earlier this month on suspicion of circulator fraud. The Lindstrom for Nebraska campaign released a statement saying the petition fraud has cost the campaign its place on the November ballot for governor of Nebraska. A campaign spokesperson said they contracted with a professional firm to collect a portion of the signatures required for ballot access about a month ago. The firm’s actions resulted in 1,543 of the campaign’s submitted signatures being invalidated. The campaign spokesperson said they exceeded the required threshold in each of Nebraska’s three congressional districts, but the fraud caused the campaign to fall short of the statewide requirement. ...read more read less