Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong. Sept. 20, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
LINCOLN — A Lancaster County District Court judge said Friday that the ongoing legal challenges to Nebraska’s two medical cannabis ballot measures might not be resolved by Election Day.
Judge Susan Strong, during a virtual hearing Friday, proposed dividing the trial set to start Oct. 29 into two parts. Under the proposal, attorneys for Secretary of State Bob Evnen and John Kuehn, a former state senator and former State Board of Health member who launched the lawsuit , would need to first prove there are enough questionable signatures.
The challenges would need to prove that a sufficient number of signatures are invalid based on allegations of technical or clerical errors, circulator fraud or malfeasance. If a sufficient number of signatures were successfully challenged, the ballot sponsors would have the opportunity to show proof that some signatures were genuinely collected and should not be tossed.