Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana submitted more than 90,000 signatures July 7 to place two medical cannabis legalization initiatives on the state’s November ballot.
The campaign had until 4 p.m. on Thursday to turn over roughly 87,000 valid signatures on each of its two petitions to get the measures before voters this year, according to a local WOWT report.
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana collected the required number of valid signatures to get a medical cannabis legalization measure before voters in the November 2020 election, only to have the Nebraska Supreme Court rule that the ballot initiative violated the single-subject rule outlined in the state constitution.
The campaign regrouped and filed two new medical cannabis initiatives with the Nebraska Secretary of State last year to get the issue before voters this November.
The group hit additional snags earlier this year, however, when it lost two of its biggest donors and filed a lawsuit against the state to ease the ballot requirements.
A judge granted a preliminary junction last month in the case, which seeks to overturn a rule that requires petitioners to gather signatures from a large number of rural counties in the state, although a federal appeals court overturned that decision July 6, WOWT reported.
RELATED: Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana Picks Up Signature Steam For Ballot Initiative
As of July 1, each of the campaign’s two petitions had roughly 67,000 signatures and the outcome looked bleak.
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“Two months ago, we were at 20,000 signatures on each petition, and now we’re well over 90,000 on each,” State Sen. Anna Wishart, a co-sponsor of the initiatives, told volunteers last week, according to WOWT.
The petitions must now undergo a verification and certification process to determine whether they will ultimately qualify for the 2022 ballot.
“I am anxious obviously to find out what those numbers were, but we feel very good about things and we’re incredibly proud of how our campaign has overcome such great odds to be here, where a lot of people and a lot of campaigns I don’t think would be,” Crista Eggers, campaign manager for Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, told WOWT. “That shows our campaign was something that the people of Nebraska supported, they got behind, and they want."
