{"id":34416,"date":"2023-05-23T12:49:31","date_gmt":"2023-05-23T18:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=34416"},"modified":"2023-05-23T12:49:31","modified_gmt":"2023-05-23T18:49:31","slug":"voter-id-implementation-bill-advanced-after-cloture-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=34416","title":{"rendered":"Voter ID implementation bill advanced after cloture vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers gave first-round approval May 22 to a proposal that would implement the provisions of an initiative petition approved by voters last year establishing a photo ID requirement to vote in Nebraska.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Tom Brewer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB514, introduced by Gordon Sen. Tom Brewer, was the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee\u2019s annual election update and clean-up bill. As introduced, the measure would make a number of technical changes, including updating rules regarding early voting ballot delivery and recall elections.<\/p>\n

Brewer, chairperson of the committee, brought an amendment to replace the bill with a proposal to implement voter ID prior to the 2024 election.<\/p>\n

Brewer said he and the committee had worked since the start of the legislative session to reach an agreement with Dunbar Sen. Julie Slama \u2014 who headed up the successful voter initiative effort and introduced her own bill outlining a voter ID framework \u2014 but those discussions failed to yield a compromise.<\/p>\n

The result was a situation that no one wanted, he said, with two competing proposals: one from Slama and one from the committee. Brewer urged lawmakers to approve the committee\u2019s proposal in the few remaining days of the 2023 session or face the possibility of a special session this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a perfect bill, but it\u2019s a better bill and it\u2019s what we have to do to fulfill our obligation to the people of Nebraska,\u201d Brewer said. \u201cAnd whether we like it or not, we\u2019re out of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slama objected to the Brewer amendment on both procedural and substantive grounds, noting that key individuals who backed the initiative were not included in implementation negotiations. Nebraska Secretary of State Robert Evnen was heavily involved in that process, Slama said, and she repeatedly referred to the Brewer amendment as the \u201cEvnen amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also argued that groups and individuals historically opposed to voter ID now backed Brewer\u2019s amendment, which she said should lead lawmakers to question the proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who opposed voter ID are now in control of voter ID,\u201d Slama said.<\/p>\n

Among other provisions, Brewer\u2019s amendment lays out the requirements for a valid form of photographic identification, which would include a document issued by the state of Nebraska, an agency or a political subdivision of the state, the U.S. military, a Nebraska postsecondary educational institution or a recognized Native American tribe or band.<\/p>\n

A hospital, assisted-living facility, nursing home or other skilled care facility record that includes a photo or digital image also would qualify.<\/p>\n

The secretary of state\u2019s office would be required to provide a website dedicated to voter ID requirements and procedures and implement a public awareness campaign. No fee would be charged to Nebraska residents for an original, renewal or duplicate state ID card for voting purposes.<\/p>\n

The amendment would allow an individual without a photo ID to vote provisionally at the polls if they have a \u201creasonable impediment\u201d to voting \u2014 including disability or illness or lack of a birth certificate or other required documents \u2014 or a religious objection to being photographed.<\/p>\n

Mail-in ballots would be required to include a copy of the voter\u2019s photo ID or their Nebraska driver\u2019s license number or state ID card number. The secretary of state\u2019s office would be charged with matching that number to photo ID information available in the state\u2019s election database.<\/p>\n

Ballots that do not meet these requirements could be \u201ccured\u201d through the election commissioner or county clerk\u2019s office by providing missing information by the Tuesday following the election.<\/p>\n

Brewer said the proposal would implement the will of the people while not infringing on the rights of eligible Nebraska voters.<\/p>\n

Lincoln Sen. Danielle Conrad, a member of the committee, agreed. She said the proposal \u201cthreads the needle\u201d of implementing voter ID in a way that ensures access to the ballot and can be implemented by election officials \u201cwithout chaos and confusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conrad said 92 of the state\u2019s 93 election officials signed letters in support of the proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI vehemently and firmly disagree with voter ID,\u201d she said. \u201cHowever, I equally find as sacrosanct our duty to facilitate and carry out the will of the people even when we disagree with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A counter amendment offered by Slama also would have allowed student and other photo IDs, but would have required the issuers of those IDs to opt in to a system to verify the citizenship of anyone using them for voting purposes.<\/p>\n

Slama said the provision would be more thorough than cross-checking signatures with the state\u2019s existing election database via motor voter information under Brewer\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n

Her amendment would require that a \u201cballot witness\u201d who is a Nebraska resident or notary public sign the envelope indicating that they had checked the voter\u2019s ID. It also would require the secretary of state\u2019s office to use information from any ID-issuing agency to verify the citizenship of every registered voter prior to Jan. 1, 2024.<\/p>\n

Under the Slama amendment, the secretary of state\u2019s office would be authorized to investigate voters suspected of not being citizens. In addition, after each election, the state attorney general would conduct an audit of witness signatures of a \u201cmeaningful sample\u201d of mail-in envelopes to confirm the ballot witness\u2019 credentials.<\/p>\n

Slama said requiring a voter to provide a driver\u2019s license number on their mail-in ballot was insufficient to accomplish the intent of the initiative, which was to require Nebraskans to present a photo ID when voting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is voter ID without voter ID,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Conrad opposed the Slama amendment, saying citizenship verification was not part of the initiative petition drive nor the resulting language in the Nebraska constitution. She said Slama\u2019s proposal likely would result in costly, lengthy legal battles for the state.<\/p>\n

After Slama\u2019s amendment failed on a vote of 8-22, she offered a series of unsuccessful motions and amendments to extend debate on the underlying bill. After eight hours of discussion, Brewer offered a motion to invoke cloture, adopted 44-2, which ends debate and forces a vote on the bill and any pending amendments.<\/p>\n

Following the successful cloture motion, lawmakers voted 44-1 to adopt a committee amendment that added provisions of two election clean-up bills.<\/p>\n

LB313, introduced by Kearney Sen. John Lowe, would update the procedure for filling federal congressional vacancies. LB269, introduced by Hastings Sen. Steve Halloran, would return redistricting procedure deadlines to their state prior to an adjustment made in 2021 to accommodate the late delivery of federal census data to the states.<\/p>\n

Senators then voted 43-1 to advance LB514 to select file.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers gave first-round approval May 22 to a proposal that would implement the provisions of an initiative petition approved by voters last year establishing a photo ID requirement to vote in Nebraska.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34400,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[174],"class_list":["post-34416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-military-and-veterans-affairs","tag-sen-tom-brewer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/LB514Brewer5-22-23c.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34416"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34418,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34416\/revisions\/34418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}