Nebraska voters will be the first in the country to directly choose between a 12-week abortion ban and a proposal to ensure abortion access "until fetal viability" this November after the Secretary of State on Friday certified that both petitions met the signature requirements to crack the ballot.
The either-or vote facing Nebraskans this November is without precedent in the state, which has not previously had two conflicting petition efforts make the same ballot, Secretary of State Bob Evnen said in a news release Friday.
“Barring any legal challenges, this November general election ballot will host two ballot measures that appear in direct conflict with each other, which could be the first time this has happened in Nebraska’s history," Evnen said.
His announcement comes after the rival campaigns seeking to amend Nebraska's constitution through ballot questions both turned in more than 200,000 signatures to Evnen's office in July after spending months and millions of dollars circulating dueling abortion access petitions.
Petitions seeking to amend Nebraska's constitution through a ballot measure must collect valid signatures from at least 10% of voters statewide — or about 122,000 voters — and signatures from at least 5% of registered voters in at least 38 of the state's 93 counties.Â
Both campaigns surpassed both requirements, Evnen said Friday.
If both proposals are approved by voters Nov. 5, the ballot measure that receives the highest number of approving votes will prevail. That sets up what is sure to be an expensive general election campaign cycle that will give Nebraska voters the power to directly weigh in on the future of abortion access in the state.
The head-to-head matchup in November will come more than two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, ending the constitutional right to abortion that had been upheld for decades and turning the issue over to states.
Before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Nebraska had outlawed abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy, a law that had been in place since 2010.
Now, voters will likely have the chance to restore abortion access beyond even the restrictions that had been in place under Roe — or reaffirm the Legislature's decision to broadly bar the procedure after 12 weeks.
“Today is an important next step for this campaign,†Allie Berry, the campaign manager for Protect Our Rights, said in a news release following Evnen's announcement Friday. “Nebraskans in every corner of the state believe in the freedom to make private health care decisions without political interference. Now, they can make this a reality in November.â€
In its own statement, the Protect Women and Children committee said the petition's “broad support in collection efforts signifies Nebraskans’ support to protect both women and children."
"It provides exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother, and protections in the second and third trimester," the committee said. "Voters have the choice to reject an extreme, activist amendment that invites government intrusion between a woman and her doctor and paves the way for taxpayer-funded abortions in favor of this consensus option.â€
Though both campaigns turned in north of 200,000 signatures last month, Evnen's office instructed county election offices — tasked with verifying signatures collected in their jurisdictions — to halt verification after the petitions had 110% of the signatures they needed to qualify for the ballot.
Evnen said both campaigns turned in more than 136,000 valid signatures from Nebraska voters statewide.
The Protect Our Rights coalition collected valid signatures from at least 5% of registered voters in 47 counties, while the Protect Women and Children committee collected valid signatures from at least 5% of registered voters in 86 counties, Evnen said.
Both campaigns spent millions in the lead up to the July 3 deadline to turn in signatures to Evnen's office as the groups made their final push to reach November's ballot, relying in part on paid petition circulators.
The rival camps both spent around $2.7 million between the launch of their respective campaigns and the end of June, according to campaign finance filings.
The Protect Our Rights campaign — backed in large part by the Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska, the ACLU of Nebraska and Nebraska Appleseed — launched its petition effort in November.
Funded almost entirely by two families — that of U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts and the Peeds, the family behind Sandhills Global — the Protect Women and Children campaign kicked off its drive in March.
The Secretary of State's office hasn't yet certified a pair of petitions seeking to legalize medical cannabis in the state. Organizers behind that effort turned in more than 114,000 signatures to Evnen's office last month — some 27,000 more signatures than the 87,000 needed for the initiative petition to qualify for November's general election ballot.
Initiative petitions require fewer signatures to qualify for the ballot than petitions seeking constitutional amendments, as both abortion petitions do.