Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnan has confirmed that initiative petitions requiring an ID to vote and raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour will appear on the November ballot.
The minimum wage ended with 97,245 valid signatures with more than 5% of registered voters in 44 different counties, 6 more than required.
The Voter ID petition was for a constitutional amendment and required more signatures – 10% of all registered voters or about 126,000. It easily meet the threshold with 136,458 valid signatures and 5% in 76 of the state’s 93 counties.
The pay measure would ratchet up the state’s current $9 per hour minimum wage to $15 hourly by 2026, starting with a $1.50 to $10.50 next January 1st. Petition organizers say it would raise wages for an estimated 150,000 workers in Nebraska.
The voter ID constitutional amendment would place in the state constitution a requirement to show a government-issued photo identification to vote in Nebraska, a long-time goal of Republicans thwarted in the legislature by filibusters.
If it passes, the Legislature would set details, including what would count as valid identification, how the law would apply to people who vote by mail, and how the state would provide free IDs to those who don’t have one.
The petition drive for the voter ID measure was bankrolled largely by Gov. Pete Ricketts’ multi-million mother