This past summer a major political party debated a resolution calling to
reinstate a partisan bicameral in Nebraska. In January of 2021, a state senator introduced legislation that would turn Nebraska's
nonpartisan open-primary legislative elections back into partisan closed-primary races. And for nearly a decade now a minority of lawmakers have consistently attempted to
abolish key nonpartisan aspects of the Unicameral rules.
Now, failed gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster has formed a political action committee aimed at ending the one-time use of written ballots by lawmakers to elect their officers and committee chairs on the first day of the session. This change would undermine the nonpartisan structure of the Nebraska Legislature, erode an important "check-and-balance," strain relationships in the small 49-member body, and give political parties and the establishment even more power over Nebraska's legislative process.
Nebraska has used written ballots for nearly 90 years - since the first day of the first session in 1937 - and the result has been a nonpartisan legislature that effectively represents the people of the state.
Sign our petition to Keep the Nebraska Unicameral Legislature nonpartisan and preserve the use of the written ballot by Nebraska lawmakers. Our aim is to get as many Nebraskans as possible to sign to show lawmakers that everyday Nebraskans support our nonpartisan Legislature!
