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The fate of legislation seeking to use $10 million of Nebraska tax dollars for private school scholarships will be left up to voters in November after a petition effort to repeal the law gathered enough signatures to reach the ballot, the state's top election official said Friday.

Led by a teachers union-backed coalition known as Support Our Schools, the effort to repeal LB1402 needed signatures from 5% of Nebraska's registered voters — a little less than 62,000 signatures — and at least 5% of voters in 38 separate counties to crack November's ballot.

In a Friday afternoon news release, Secretary of State Bob Evnen said the group had cleared both hurdles and "will qualify for the general election ballot once verification and certification has been completed."

Support Our Schools collected valid signatures from at least 62,042 voters statewide and from at least 5% of voters in 57 of the state's 93 counties, Evnen said.

County election commissioners will continue reviewing signatures until the referendum has amassed 110% of the statewide signature threshold, Evnen said, but the early returns suggest the coalition turned in more than enough signatures to appear on the ballot.

"We are SO close," Tim Royers, the incoming president of the Nebraska State Education Association, said in a social media post Friday following Evnen's announcement. "But I was a coach long enough to know that you can't celebrate until the result is final. Looking forward to the official confirmation soon that we will be on the ballot!"

It's the second time in less than a year that Support Our Schools has turned in tens of thousands of signatures of registered voters in the state to repeal the Opportunity Scholarships Act, which seeks to use state dollars to support private schools.

In August 2023, organizers submitted more than 117,000 signatures — more than double the number needed to qualify for the ballot — to put a repeal of a law (LB753) that granted a 100% tax credit to private school donors on the 2024 general election ballot.

The Legislature, in an effort led by Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, rendered the referendum moot on the final day of its 60-day session in April, however, passing LB1402, which ended the dollar-for-dollar tax credit in lieu of providing a direct appropriation of $10 million for private school scholarships.

Support Our Schools, in turn, launched a second petition drive in May seeking to repeal the appropriation included in LB1402 while keeping the provision ending the previously passed tax credit in place.

If the state votes to repeal the law in November, the Opportunity Scholarships program would end less than a year after it began — but not before students have received scholarships funded through both the tax credit and direct appropriation.

The state allocated $10 million to the Nebraska State Treasurer to be dispersed to private school scholarship organizations beginning in July.

Backers of the school choice programs have said giving Nebraskans the chance to end the program at the ballot box could hurt students who are benefiting from those programs.

Linehan, who championed the issue throughout her two terms in the Legislature, said the referendum was supported by a "tangled web of left-wing special interests" funded by "wealthy liberal elites" in Omaha.

Backed largely by the State Education Association, the coalition pushing for the law's repeal spent more than $1.2 million this year, including $512,000 in June alone, according to campaign finance filings.