JUDGE RULES NEBRASKA MEDICAL CANNABIS VOTES WILL BE COUNTED, DECLINES TO DELAY TRIAL

LINCOLN — The votes cast for or against Nebraska’s two medical cannabis ballot measures Tuesday will be counted and made public, after a district court judge rebuffed a request to prevent both actions. Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong said she agreed with attorney Daniel Gutman, who is defending the ballot sponsors, that the “status quo” is to count votes on Election Day. She noted that it was Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen who certified the measures for the ballot and that Nebraskans are already voting.

Austin-based attorney Anne Mackin, on behalf of John Kuehn, who filed a lawsuit against the ballot measures, asked Strong to prevent the counting and tabulating of votes because the ongoing trial could invalidate the measures. Mackin said state law requires that only “valid” votes be counted. The measures would regulate and legalize medical cannabis.

Beginning Monday morning, 24 hours before polls open Tuesday, county officials may begin counting early or mail-in votes.

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LANCASTER COUNTY ELECTION COMMISSION SAYS SOCIAL MEDIA POST IMPLYING ELECTION FRAUD IS 'FALSE AND MISLEADING'

LANCASTER COUNTY, Nebr. - Officials said a member of a "malicious conspiracy theorist group" recorded a video showing a man on a skateboard returning his ballot and shared it on social media Sunday. The social media post "erroneously implied" that the man did something wrong, the Lancaster County Election Commissioner Todd Wiltgen said.

Officials said they reviewed surveillance footage of the ballot drop box and identified the voter when his ballot was retrieved. "It is shameful and unAmerican to intimidate and threaten anyone for exercising their right to vote," Wiltgen said in a statement.

Officials said they were concerned for the man's safety when commenters on the social media post were threatening to harm him. The election commission contacted the Lincoln Police Department, who reached out to the voter, officials said.

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NE SECRETARY OF STATE BOB EVNEN PREDICTS 72% STATEWIDE VOTER TURNOUT

LINCOLN — Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen is predicting a 72% statewide voter turnout for the 2024 general election, an estimate based on early voting and turnout trends in recent general elections.That’s in the same league as the statewide 76% turnout for the 2020 presidential election, which was fueled by overwhelming amounts of early voting connected to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Nebraskans continue to fulfill the new voter ID requirement before voting, and we expect that to continue on Election Day,” he said.

Nebraska has 1,264,149 registered voters. So far, Evnen said, 332,455 registered voters have successfully cast ballots for the Nov. 5 general election. Of those, 72,049 have voted early in person at county election offices and 260,406 have voted early by mail including voters in by-mail counties or precincts.

Nebraskans can find their polling place on VoterCheck.

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WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE ELECTION DAY IN NEBRASKA'S 2024 GENERAL ELECTION

LINCOLN — Attention Nebraska voters: Those of you who haven’t voted yet have spent months being bombarded by ads and text messages, campaign mailers and news coverage. You’re ready to vote. But just a reminder before you head to the polls: Take along a photo ID.

The state’s voters passed a constitutional amendment in 2022 requiring a picture ID to vote, and the Legislature in 2023 specified what types of identification would be accepted. Primary election voters have already done the ID drill, but this is the first statewide general election since the changes. If you forget an ID, you’ll have to go home to get it and return, or you’ll have to vote provisionally, taking an ID to your county election office after Election Day.

If Nebraska’s most populous county is any indication, voter turnout in the 2024 presidential election could be extraordinary. Douglas County Election Commissioner Brian Kruse last week predicted a 73% overall voter turnout in the county, including ballots cast on Election Day, but he said it could reach 75%.

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ROD YATES' $5B GOOD LIFE DISTRICT PLAN HITS NOT-SO-GOOD PATCH

OMAHA- Businessman Rod Yates’ plan to create a multibillion-dollar sports-centric tourist magnet between Omaha and Lincoln appears to have hit some headwinds, despite an apparent endorsement by Gov. Jim Pillen. Advisers to the City of Gretna, where the sprawling Good Life District project is proposed to surround Yates’ existing Nebraska Crossing outlets, have recommended against moving forward under terms laid out by Yates’ team.

The advisers cited concerns about the lack of detail, a call for the city to reduce its own sales tax rate in the Good Life District, and a call for Gretna to use city resources for land acquisition or possibly exercise its power of eminent domain. City administrator Paula Dennison, in a report to the Gretna City Council, said the staff was excited to continue to work on ways “to bring transformational development to Gretna” via the Good Life District legislation, but she said the current demands by Yates are not in the best interests of Gretna taxpayers.

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MEDICAL MARIJUANA WOULD FACE BUSINESS CHALLENGES IF INITIATIVES PASS

LINCOLN- If Nebraska voters legalize medical marijuana on Election Day, there would be opportunities for entrepreneurs but also a lot of challenges. Michael Johnson, who lives in Nebraska and is the CEO of the Colorado-based marijuana business Shift, said Nebraska would be late to the medical marijuana market, but that's an opportunity.

People familiar with the medical marijuana market said that creating a stable industry in Nebraska is possible if the ballot measures legalizing medical marijuana are approved. However, the medical marijuana market has had supply and demand imbalances in other states, lacks access to typical resources, and is surrounded by regulatory uncertainty.

The potential market size for medical cannabis is about 4% of Nebraska’s population by 2030, said Andrew Livingston, the director of Economics and Research at the national cannabis law firm Vicente LLP.

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NEW REVENUE PREDICTIONS POINT TO TOUGHER BUDGET, TAX DECISIONS NEXT YEAR

LINCOLN- Nebraska lawmakers could have a tough job balancing the state budget or providing more property tax relief next year, based on new projections of state tax revenues. At a meeting Thursday, the Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board projected minimal growth in revenues during the period ending June 30, 2027, which includes the next two-year state budget period.

The board forecast state tax revenues of $6.95 billion for the first year of the budget period and $6.965 billion for the second year, amounting to growth of 0.2% between the two years. For the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2025, it forecast revenues would come in $141 million less than previously expected.

State Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood, the Appropriations Committee chairman, said the new revenue projections, combined with estimates of state spending, would put the state about $226 million into the red by the end of the period.

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UNMC SELECTED AS ONE OF 10 NEW REGIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH CENTERS FOR CDC

OMAHA- The University of Nebraska Medical Center is one of 10 regional centers across the United States selected to start a program to help communities prepare for and respond to public health threats. The recognition and five-year funding commitment from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention follow an earlier grant in which UNMC led the development of a new national planning approach to large-scale health crises.

The first annual installment of the grant is about $640,000, said Rachel Lookadoo, principal investigator who also is an assistant professor of environmental, agricultural, and occupational health. UNMC announced Thursday it will administer the center for Region Seven of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, serving Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri.

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IOWA, WISCONSIN, NATIONAL EDUCATORS URGE NEBRASKANS TO REPEAL STATE SUPPORT TO PRIVATE SCHOOLS

LINCOLN - Educators from Iowa, Wisconsin and the National Education Association (NEA) are joining Nebraskan educators in urging Nebraskans to vote “repeal” on Referendum Measure 435. If passed, the measure would repeal LB 1402, a law that funds “education scholarships” for private K-12 schools. LB 1402, which was passed in April, appropriates $10 million annually for the State Treasurer’s Office to distribute “education scholarships” for students to attend private schools.

Representatives from the NEA are pointing Nebraskans to look at Wisconsin where there are two funding systems, one totalling over $568.5 million for a private voucher system. They argue the system harms public schools and makes it tough, “to keep the doors open and the lights on” in public schools. However, Senator Linehan, who has spearheaded the legislation during her time in the legislature noted that, “$10 million represents 0.02% of the total cost for Nebraska’s public schools, which receive more than $5 billion.”

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MAYA HARRIS, KAMALA HARRIS' SISTER, VISITS NORTH OMAHA TO PUSH EARLY VOTING

OMAHA - Maya Harris, sister of Vice President Kamala Harris, stopped in North Omaha on Saturday to encourage those in Nebraska’s “Blue Dot” to get out and vote early.

State Sen. Tony Vargas, a candidate for Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District seat; U.S. Senate candidate Preston Love Jr.; and Terrell McKinney, a Nebraska state senator seeking reelection, also spoke during the event.

More than a hundred Harris supporters, many wearing shirts or holding signs featuring a “Blue Dot,” cheered as speakers highlighted the impact Omaha and the rest of Nebraska’s 2nd District could have on the presidential election. Maya Harris encouraged those at the rally to vote early and tell their friends and family to do the same.

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REP. MIKE FLOOD FACES FAMILIAR CHALLENGER, STATE SEN. CAROL BLOOD, IN RACE FOR 1ST DISTRICT

LINCOLN - Congressman Mike Flood, a Republican from Norfolk who rose from Nebraska's Legislature to the House in 2022, is vying for reelection with Democratic challenger Carol Blood, a state lawmaker from Bellevue who is perhaps best known statewide for her unsuccessful run for governor in 2022.

Neither campaign has released polling ahead of the Nov. 5 election, but Republicans enjoy a massive voter registration advantage in the district, which has 74,275 more GOP voters than Democrats — despite the fact that Lincoln, the state's second largest city and a Democratic stronghold, is the 1st District's most populous city.

Blood, a 63-year-old former city councilwoman from Bellevue who will be term-limited in the Legislature this year, faces long odds as she tries to become the first Democrat elected to represent Nebraska's 1st Congressional District since 1964.

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FORMAL COMPLAINTS RAISED INVOLVING BACON AND VARGAS

OMAHA- The latest heel turn in Nebraska’s 2nd District race between Republican U.S. Rep. Don Bacon and Democratic State Sen. Tony Vargas involves formal complaints filed targeting both. Action on either allegation by the Office of Congressional Ethics or the Federal Election Commission is unlikely before Election Day on Nov. 5. Voters are on their own to weigh the allegations, the motives of the people and groups behind them and the responses of the candidates themselves in the campaign’s last moments.

The most recent is a complaint against Bacon filed by Nancy Meyer of Cedar Bluffs with the House Office of Congressional Ethics, which screens and forwards such complaints to the House Ethics Committee. Meyer’s complaint alleges Bacon misused government resources by signing a letter on official House office letterhead urging the Nebraska Legislature to change how it awards Electoral College votes.

Bacon recently highlighted an FEC complaint against a group that paid Vargas that was filed in March by the right-leaning Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, previously funded by the Koch brothers. That group argued that a $60,000 fellowship program that Vargas and other candidates participated in between his 2022 and 2024 congressional campaigns should have been listed as a political donation.

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PETE RICKETTS, FAMILY DONATED MORE THAN $25 MILLION TO 2024 CONSERVATIVE CAMPAIGNS, CAUSES

LINCOLN- In the nine months leading up to a contentious election, the Ricketts family, among the biggest political donors in Nebraska, shelled out over $25 million to conservative candidates and causes. The family has influenced Nebraska politics for years, particularly after Pete Ricketts was elected governor in 2014. The family patriarch, Joe Ricketts, founded former stockbroking company TD Ameritrade and has a 2024 net worth of $4.1 billion, according to Forbes.

Now a U.S. senator, Pete Ricketts, who was appointed to the seat last year and is running to complete the term, contributed nearly $4.2 million to both state and federal political causes through the end of September. Joe Ricketts has donated about $5.9 million, while matriarch Marlene Ricketts has donated more than $15 million. Of that $25 million total, a majority went to campaigns outside Nebraska.

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2 NEBRASKA REGENTS SPONSORING ADS OPPOSING ABORTION BALLOT INITIATIVE

OMAHA- A series of television commercials asking Nebraska voters to oppose one of two abortion initiatives on November’s general election ballot have unlikely benefactors: candidates for the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. Amid their own reelection campaigns, Regents Rob Schafer of Beatrice and Jim Scheer of Norfolk sponsored advertisements opposing Initiative 439, which would create a “fundamental right to abortion until fetal viability” in the state constitution.

While elected officials or candidates often take a public stand on issues that will go before voters, several political observers in the state said they had never seen regents sponsor political advertising for a ballot issue not under the university’s purview. The commercials also have benefited from at least one contribution to a regent exceeding $1.5 million, which is larger than most made in Nebraska, according to an official charged with monitoring campaign finance.

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TRIAL BEGINS IN CASE AGAINST MEDICAL CANNABIS BALLOT MEASURES

LINCOLN- The trial over Nebraska’s two medical cannabis ballot measures began Tuesday with a broad examination into notary publics, citizen-led initiatives and the different groups that have reviewed the petition signatures. The case in Lancaster County District Court involves two petitions from the Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana campaign that would legalize and regulate medical cannabis. Both petitions remain on the Nov. 5 ballot, but if this week’s legal challenges are successful, that could invalidate the election results.

The medical marijuana campaign needs 86,499 valid signatures. Nearly 90,000 signatures were verified on each petition. Attorneys for John Kuehn, a former state senator and former State Board of Health member who filed the Sept. 12 lawsuit, and Secretary of State Bob Evnen, a defendant, sought to frame the case around following the rules.

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LAWMAKERS, PUBLIC SCHOOL ADVOCATES SPAR OVER ADS AGAINST USING STATE FUNDS FOR NE PRIVATE SCHOOLS

LINCOLN- Nebraska lawmakers made what likely was a final push Monday before Election Day to save the state’s latest “school choice” program to offset attendance costs at private schools. State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, who sponsored the original Legislative Bills 753 in 2023 and 1402 this year, joined with about 20 of her legislative colleagues to criticize a new ad from the Support Our Schools campaign, which has opposed both of Linehan’s bills.

The targeted ad, posted to the campaign’s social media four days ago, shows three men in suits, which the senators took as caricatures of themselves. The men enter a classroom, steal toy blocks from the children, break pencils, knock over dominoes, and break a house made of Legos. “The commercials are ridiculous, and they are insulting to the Legislature,” Linehan said.

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LINCOLN SENATOR SAYS SHE DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT POLITICAL FLYER USING MINOR'S PHOTO

LINCOLN - A campaign flyer funded by the Omaha Police Officers Association sparked controversy for Senator Carolyn Bosn. The flyer promoted her as "tough on crime" and suggested a 14-year-old accused of murder remains enrolled in Lincoln Public Schools. However, Senator Bosn, a former prosecutor, said she  "did not have any role in creating or approving the content," only learning of it after from a constituent. Bosn emphasized her commitment to running a clean campaign.

While the Omaha Police Officers Association funded the mailer, the union has not directly contributed to Bosn's campaign. Bosn's opponent, Nicki Behmer Popp, criticized the ad as misleading and manipulative. The mailer was also posted on X by a concerned constituent which over 17,000 people have seen.

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NEBRASKA LEGISLATURE, DISTRICT 25: BOSN FACES CHALLENGE TO RETAIN SEAT SHE WAS APPOINTED TO

LINCOLN- Both candidates vying to represent southeast Lincoln and Lancaster County in Nebraska's Legislature will appear on the ballot as a legislative candidate for the first time this November, though one has already been in office for 18 months. Sen. Carolyn Bosn, a Republican whom Gov. Jim Pillen appointed to replace former Sen. Suzanne Geist in April 2023 following Geist's resignation, is asking voters to send her back to the statehouse for a full four-year term in the formally nonpartisan Legislature where she has emerged as a leading voice on public safety issues.

Nicki Behmer Popp, a registered nonpartisan who has served on the Lincoln Airport Authority since 2021, is seeking to unseat the unelected incumbent. Behmer Popp's bid to draw moderate conservatives by casting Bosn as "extreme" reflects the political realities of District 25, which includes a large swath of southeast Lincoln and Lancaster County, including the village of Bennet.

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UNICAMERAL CANDIDATES ADDRESS MAJOR WESTERN NEBRASKA ISSUES

NORTH PLATTE - Voters in Nebraska’s Panhandle and Sandhills will choose a new representative for term-limited Sen. Tom Brewer in District 43. Former Cherry County Commissioner Tanya Storer of rural Whitman is running against Chadron pastor Donald “Tony” Tangwall. Storer, who previously lost to Brewer in 2020, seeks to leverage her extensive local experience in a district spanning 11 counties. Tangwall did not provide answers to the request.

Storer emphasizes the need for strong leadership to combat the loss of rural representation. With a background as a rancher and educator, she is committed to addressing local challenges. Storer plans to advocate for property tax relief through a more equitable school funding formula and to uphold constitutional rights, including Second Amendment rights. She supports the governor’s goal of reducing property taxes by 40% and aims to foster collaboration between state and local governments for meaningful tax relief, ensuring that rural Nebraska remains a vibrant place for future generations.

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AMHERST FARMER FACES MARKETING MANAGER IN LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT 41

KEARNEY — In the race to replace Senator Fred Meyer, who declined to run for a full term after being appointed to fill Sen. Tom Briese's seat in Nebraska's nonpartisan Legislature, Amherst farmer Dan McKeon faces off against Ord resident Ethan Clark. This contest unfolds across parts of eight counties in south-central Nebraska.

Dan McKeon, a lifelong farmer from Amherst, highlights his deep agricultural roots and hands-on experience as key advantages in his campaign. He emphasizes the importance of local control and aims to address the needs of his constituents by fostering collaboration in the Legislature. McKeon advocates for a more secure voting system, suggesting a return to hand ballots to enhance election integrity.

Ethan Clark, a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, offers a distinct perspective as a marketing manager with prior experience in the Legislature. He believes that his familiarity with the legislative processes will allow him to be effective immediately upon election. Clark asserts that elections are fair and secure, highlighting the lack of evidence for voter fraud in Nebraska and supporting ongoing efforts to enhance election security. His primary focus will be on advocating for rural economic development, supporting local schools, cutting government spending, and reducing the overall tax burden for residents.

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