By Zach Wendling | Nebraska Examiner
State senators were asked what changes, if any, they would support to ballot measure processes
LINCOLN — Nebraskans have participated as the state’s “second house” and voiced the “will of the voters” in 23 statewide ballot measures since 2004.
More than 17.6 million votes were cast for or against those issues.
Voters have weighed in on statewide measures in every election since 2014, one of the longest stretches of voter-advocated ballot issues in state history. Advocates across the political spectrum say part of the reason for consistent petitions is failure to reflect voters’ wishes in the Legislature, the one-house, one-in-a-nation system designed by voters themselves under a 1934 constitutional amendment.
The Nebraska Constitution, since 1912, has allowed Nebraskans to create new state laws and constitutional amendments and repeal laws passed by the Legislature. Some 18 statewide ballot measures have passed including and since the 2004 election.
Signatures and campaign finance
There are strict signature-gathering requirements to reach the ballot, including bulk totals and a distribution requirement. Measures reaching voters over that span required more than 2 million signatures for an up-or-down vote. Tens of thousands more signatures were gathered for measures that fell short or were disqualified from being voted on.
Groups vying to reach voters spent $95 million over that period. Of that total, the 2022 and 2024 election cycles accounted for more than half.
The upward trend in fundraising and spending for ballot measures is similar to what’s facing legislative races, including the 25 seats up for election in 2024. Legislative elections exceeded $10 million in spending, a new record.
Of the legislative tally in 2024, $1 million came after freshman State Sens. Ashlei Spivey of Omaha and Tanya Storer of Whitman joined a new tactic in which candidates purchase campaign advertising for ballot measure campaigns more cheaply than the ballot campaigns could without them. University of Nebraska Regents Rob Schafer of Beatrice and Jim Scheer of Norfolk and John Yoakum, a member of the Lower Platte South Natural Resources District, also joined in as part of competing abortion-related ballot campaigns.
Nebraska’s 49 state senators are paid $12,000 a year.
Voter-lawmaker tension
Tension between voters and state officials escalated in 2025, with multiple bills and legislative debates around implementing or tweaking medical cannabis, paid sick leave, minimum wage, state support for private schools and more. The Constitution requires 33 votes from legislators to tweak voter-approved state laws.
As a result of the 2025 legislative session, a 2026 petition campaign seeks to make it harder for lawmakers to intervene and require 40 votes to do so.
Eight more petitions are circulating for the 2026 ballot — around abortion, property taxes and property valuations, teacher pay, recreational marijuana, hand-count ballots and how the state awards its Electoral College votes for president. Another, to legalize online sports betting, waits in the wings pending legislative action, or inaction.
Lawmakers in 2025 invoked phrases like the “will of the voters” and “will of the people” 499 times in 2025. Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, too, used the phrase while advocating to change how the state awards presidential electors during his 2025 State of the State address.
Embattled State Sen. Dan McKeon of Amherst, who faces a possible expulsion vote as soon as this week, has invoked the phrase in defense of his service.
Lawmakers define ‘will of the voters’
Starting in June 2025, the Nebraska Examiner invited all 49 state senators to reflect on what the phrase “will of the voters” means to them as they approach legislation proposing tweaks to voter-approved ballot measures. Lawmakers were also asked if they supported any specific changes and, if so, what.
As of publication, 33 senators had responded. A couple said they did not have time to respond or worried that, however they responded, it could be a “trick question.” View the project in a new online window here.