Bill would require petition circulator IDs

Petition circulators in Nebraska would be required to wear identification under a bill heard March 9 by the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.

LB523, introduced by Boys Town Sen. Rich Pahls at the request of the secretary of state, would require the sponsor of a petition under the Election Act to provide each circulator with visible identification. The ID would include a number unique to each circulator but could not contain the circulator’s name or other personal information.

A petition sponsor would be required to maintain records of the name, address and number assigned to each circulator and to make those records available upon request to the secretary of state, attorney general or law enforcement agencies for investigation purposes.

Pahls said the bill was a response to controversial actions taken by some circulators in the past.

“This [bill] may bring a level of professionalism to petition drives,” he said.

Nebraska Secretary of State John Gale testified in support of the bill, saying it would bring more civility to the petition signature gathering process. While acknowledging the importance of the initiative process to Nebraska politics, Gale said his office has received many complaints from citizens about aggressive and confrontational circulator behavior.

“This is one area that we’ve found is a very rough and tumble area of election law,” he said.

Requiring circulators to wear identification numbers would allow officials to investigate circulators who violate election law and hold them accountable for their actions, Gale said.

But Kent Bernbeck of Elkhorn said the bill would hinder petition drives that use volunteer circulators.

Testifying against LB523, Bernbeck said volunteers often informally recruit like-minded citizens who also wish to circulate a petition, making record keeping too complicated and burdensome for petition sponsors.

“This bill does nothing more than impede the process,” he said, adding that citizens already have a means of responding to circulators who engage in illegal conduct.

“We call the cops when someone breaks the law,” Bernbeck said.

The committee took no immediate action on the bill.