On November 8th, voters will face a statewide ballot issue, identified as referendum #426.
Nebraska Secretary of State John Gale says the bill that has been referred to them is LB 268.
Gale says that bill was passed in 2015 by the first session of the Nebraska legislature and it repealed the death penalty.
The governor overrode the bill but the legislature overrode the veto.
Gale explains under the referendum process, if someone is going to challenge a piece of legislation, the petition drive has to begin shortly after the legislative session.
He says the petition drive for LB 268 got enough signatures within the 90-day requirement to put it on the ballot. So on November 8th, voters will vote to either retain LB 268 or repeal it.
"If you vote to retain, that means that LB 268 will become effective. It will end the death penalty. If they vote to repeal, what they’re voting on is to repeal LB 268 and that would then preserve the death penalty.”
Voters who would like to see and read the verbiage on the ballot ahead of time can log on to VoteDouglasCounty.com to view a sample ballot.