Nebraska Secretary of State

From Ballotpedia

Jump to: navigation, search
State Government
Image:Legislature128.png
State officials
Elections, 2010
State legislatures
Find your state

Contents

The Nebraska Secretary of State has responsibilities over the following areas: elections, business services, occupational licensing, state rules and regulations, records management, international relations and youth civics programs. The secretary of state is the keeper of the Seal of the State of Nebraska, and the office is the repository for official state documents.

The current officeholder is John A. Gale.

Duties

The secretary of state serves as the chief election officer of the state. The Elections Division is responsible for the election process in Nebraska. Duties include accepting filings and tabulating results for statewide, legislative, judicial retention and certain district elections; accepting filings for statewide initiative and referendum petitions; administering election law; and supervising the conduct of elections. The division is responsible for implementing reforms under the federal Help America Vote Act.

Voter Information

The secretary of state is also charged with the duty to educate the voters in Nebraska. This is does though the Voter Information Pamphlet, Public Hearings and publication of the ballot.

Role in the initiative process

The first step in filing an initiative in Nebraska is to submit a copy of the text and the object clause for the petition to the secretary of state's office. The sponsor also needs to supply a sworn list of sponsors when submitting the initiative.

The secretary of state then sends the language to the Revisor of Statutes who reviews the language to see if it fits into the constitution or statues clearly and uniformly. This process must be completed within 10 days before it must be returned to the Secretary of State. Sponsors are informed of the recommended changes by the secretary of state but may choose to accept or reject the office's suggestions. These changes remain confidential for the duration of the 5 day review but are released as public record after the language is settled.

Once the final form is given to the sponsor the language of the measure may not be changed, but if it become necessary the entire process must start again.

Signature Verification

When sponsors submit the petitions to the secretary of state, they must submit it no less than four months prior to the general election with all the signatures separated by county. The secretary of state will then check that there are at least the minimum required amount of signatures before beginning the verification process.

If there are enough signatures the petitions are sent to the local election officials to be compared with he voter registration records. This process must be completed in 40 days after receiving the signatures, though in some circumstances an additional 10 days is allowed.

When the signatures are verified, the measure is placed on the general election ballot.

Contact Information

Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 94608
Lincoln, NE 68509-4608

Physical Address:
State Capitol, Ste 2300
Lincoln, NE 68509

Phone:402-471-2554
Fax:402-471-3237

See also

External links

v • d • e
Current Secretaries of State
   
Secretary of State elections, 2010
Retrieved from "http://www.ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Nebraska_Secretary_of_State"
Personal tools