Without paid petitioners, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana won’t be able to achieve the minimum number of signatures

OMAHA, Nebraska – To get a ballot proposal on the ballot, a lot of work must be done.

A petition needs at least 100,000 signatures, or 10% of all Nebraska voters who are registered to vote.

Someone must go gather the signatures; you can’t just leave the petition out for people to sign.

The entire work is done by volunteers. Many of the folks working and collecting in the state today have children who have epilepsy or are battling cancer, said to Sen. Anna Wishart, who has worked on the 2020 and 2022 medical marijuana ballot measures.

With only volunteers, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana is nearing the end of its 2022 petition drive.

In contrast to their 2020 campaign, when they collected approximately 60,000 more signatures than necessary, the group is currently waging an uphill battle to collect enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.

The finance for the two campaigns has been one of their main differences.

Randall Adkins stated, “I don’t think there was ever an expectation that petition circulators be paid, but it has definitely developed a circumstance where those using paid circulators have a lot better chance at success.

When one of their key donors tragically passed away in 2022, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana lacked the financial resources to hire paid circulators to obtain enough signatures.

It appears to be an unfair situation for a group that has previously launched a successful campaign, but Adkins claimed that politics operates unfairly as usual.

“It’s just a fact of life when it comes to understanding modern election campaigns; it’s just the way things are. Professionals working on your campaign will increase its dependability, according to Adkins.

It is yet unclear whether Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, which must collect tens of thousands of signatures by their deadline on Thursday, will succeed or fail as a result of the absence of hired petitioners.

Wishart estimated that another 20,000 signatures on each petition would be needed in the following three days before she felt confident she had enough to submit to the Secretary of State. “I haven’t tallied anything yet since I have been out circulating,” she added.