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In the past few months, I outlined six initiative petitions that have been filed with the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office and are currently in circulation for the 2026 General Election.
Since then, two additional initiative petitions have been submitted to the Secretary of State: (1) the Winner Take All Electors Constitutional Amendment and (2) the Hand Count Ballots for Elections Constitutional Amendment.
Both initiatives were brought by the group Advocates for All Nebraskans. Although I provide information about these initiative petitions, this newsletter series is meant to be informative and neither represents an endorsement FOR nor AGAINST any particular measure.
The Winner Take All Electors Constitutional Amendment proposes to change how Nebraska awards its Electoral College votes for President and Vice-President.
This measure would amend Article VI of the Nebraska Constitution to specify that all of the state’s electoral votes would go to the winner of the statewide presidential election. Today, only two states, Maine and Nebraska, allocate votes for a presidential candidate based on the congressional district method. Under this system, two of Nebraska’s electoral votes are awarded to the statewide winner while the other three votes are awarded to the winner in each respective congressional district. If placed on the ballot, voters would have the opportunity to decide whether to readopt the winner-take-all system, which had been in place in Nebraska prior to 1991, or retain the current congressional district method system at the 2026 general election.
The Hand Count Ballots for Elections Amendment proposes to amend Article VI of the Constitution to specify elections shall be conducted exclusively using paper ballots counted by hand. Nebraska currently uses voting machines as a method of the election process, specifically Express-Vote machines to assist disabled or special needs voters in marking their ballots and optical scanning tabulator devices which count paper ballots. Introdu-cers of this initiative argue hand-counting paper ballots represent the most secure and publicly verifiable method of counting votes, yet other people suggest hand-counting is less reliable, cost more, and be more time-consuming. If approved by voters, this measure would apply to all Nebraska elections after July 1, 2027.
Under our state’s constitution, there is a signature threshold requirement in order to get an initiative petition successfully on the ballot. Since these two ballot measures discussed here both propose to amend the Nebraska Constitution, approximately ten percent of Nebraska voters, or 126,000 signatures, will need to be collected. In addition to the statewide percentage, both petitions must meet a geographic distribution requirement. The signatures must be collected from at least five percent of the registered voters in each of 38 of Nebraska’s 93 counties.
People interested in getting more information about these two proposed ballot measures may consider visiting the Secretary of State’s website at https://sos.nebraska.gov/ current-petitions-circulation.
I invite you to let me know your opinions.My number is (402) 471-2801 and my email is [email protected]. My address is: Sen. Barry DeKay, Dist. 40, Box 94604, State Capitol, Lincoln, NE 68509.
