(Picture credit Secretary of State’s Office)
OMAHA — A third petition effort in Nebraska has been flagged for law enforcement for likely fraudulent signatures, according to multiple county election commissioners.
Lancaster County Election Commissioner Todd Wiltgen told The Plains Sentinel on Saturday that the group, Tax Relief Nebraska, had suspected fraudulent signatures on both of the petitions that the group turned in.
“I referred suspected fraudulent circulators to the [Lancaster County] sheriff’s office last week,” Wiltgen said.
While the first two cases of petition fraud that have been reported on previously involved petitioners working mostly in the Lincoln area, Douglas County Election Commissioner Danielle Jensen confirmed to The Plains Sentinel on Saturday that her office had also found fraud on the sports betting petition.
Jensen told The Plains Sentinel that any fraud found on petitions will be submitted to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.
Wiltgen said that the suspected fraud with Tax Relief Nebraska did not involve the five previously arrested individuals, who were accused of fraud in a charter amendment petitioning effort in Lincoln.
He said that there were a similar number of petitioners committing fraud as in the two prior cases of fraud found this month, but said there were fewer pages found fraudulent on the sports betting petition.
“It was similar in nature in that every signature line was rejected on a page because the voter was either not registered to vote in Nebraska or the signature was suspected fraudulent,” he said.
Public officials have hinted that the probe into fraudulent signatures could expand into even more ballot efforts.
The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office said on Friday that “investigators are also examining additional petitions gathered in Lancaster County in support of statewide ballot initiatives.”
“Our investigators will follow the evidence, report those findings to the prosecuting agency for review,” Sheriff Terry Wagner said. “We will continue to safeguard the integrity of this criminal investigation from attempts by any party, group, or affiliation to use them for political purposes.”
Tax Relief Nebraska
Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission (NADC) records show Tax Relief Nebraska paid two different companies to gather petitions, Neilan Strategy Group and FieldWorks.
FieldWorks is a DC-based Democratic petitioning firm, while Neilan Strategy Group is a Nebraska-based consulting firm that works with corporate and political clients. Both Jensen and Wiltgen said they did not know which of the companies was responsible for the fraudulent signatures.
Neither FieldWorks, Neilan Strategy, nor Tax Relief Nebraska responded to requests for comment.
FieldWorks has worked as a contractor in previous statewide petitioning campaigns in Nebraska, including the 2024 efforts to legalize medical marijuana and the referendum to repeal Nebraska’s program which gave $10 million for private school scholarships.
The medical marijuana petitioning campaign has been wrapped up in lengthy legal proceedings over notary fraud committed by an individual working for Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, the group that organized the petition.
Petitioning Fraud Fallout Grows
Reports of petitioning fraud broke nearly two weeks ago when Good Government Lincoln, which is trying to get three charter amendments passed in Lincoln, announced they were redoing their petitioning effort following suspected tampering. Later that day, the Lincoln city clerk announced the effort had failed with over 65% of the signatures being rejected.
The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office announced 10 days ago that they have arrested five petitioners hired by the company On The Ballot. The five individuals are facing multiple felony charges apiece.
On Friday, the Secretary of State’s Office announced that Brett Lindstrom had failed in his bid to make it into the governor’s race as an Independent. Lindstrom had used On The Ballot for some of his petitioning needs in addition to a Democratic firm. Three of the individuals who worked on the Good Government Lincoln petitioning effort also worked on the Lindstrom effort and turned in fraudulent signatures.
The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office told media in its initial press conference that they have found no political motivation in any of the petitioners arrested. Despite this, Democrats have sought to politicize the investigation, calling for Lancaster County Attorney Pat Condon to appoint an independent investigator.
How Massive Fraud Occurred
Jordan Brownstein, the CEO of On the Ballot, said in a news release last week that multiple members of the team had been with the company through campaigns across the country.
“The individuals identified and arrested have been part of successful ballot access drives for candidates ranging from mayors to presidents, nationwide,” Brownstein said. “We trusted these individuals, we cared for them, and despite this, they chose to defraud us and our clients.”
Typically, a major petitioning company will have rigorous internal checks to make sure petitioners are not committing fraud. In the case of On the Ballot, The Plains Sentinel was told by someone with knowledge of the case that multiple individuals arrested for petitioning fraud in the company were also responsible for verifying signatures as authentic.
“The fraud that was discovered is outrageous and the worst kind of dirty political tricks,” Brownstein said. “As the vendor in charge of gathering signatures, we are eagerly cooperating with law enforcement to make sure every bad actor involved is brought to justice, and whoever directed this sabotage is identified and exposed.”
— John Gage is the executive editor of The Plains Sentinel.
As long as people are being handsomely paid to gather signatures, we shouldn't be surprised to find fraudulent signatures along with their misrepresenting the true purpose of a ballot. Where are the volunteers that back these initiatives? If there's enough backing for an initiative, there should be no shortage of volunteers gathering signatures. In my opinion, removing money from the equation would result in more honesty.