LINCOLN — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, Secretary of State Bob Evnen and multiple county election officials are calling for changes to petitioning in the state amid multiple investigations of possibly fraudulent signatures statewide.

Evnen said petitioners submitted about 767,000 signatures for review across 17 separate petitions this year. That includes 85,000 petition pages, each one of which can have no more than 20 signatures. The petitions included statewide ballot measures, Lincoln City Charter amendments and nonpartisan or partisan candidates for the Nov. 3 ballot.

Of the petitions, election officials in at least Lancaster County and Hall County caught and forwarded thousands of signatures suspected to be fraudulent to authorities. As of Aug. 19, six out-of-state circulators had been arrested, and law enforcement was searching for a seventh.

County law enforcement officers are actively reviewing signatures across at least eight 2026 petitions.

Evnen couldn’t confirm whether more petitions or campaigns are under investigation because of the ongoing criminal investigation. He described attempted fraud as a “despicable act.” “We caught the signature fraud. This is not an accident,” Evnen said. “This is the result of the hard work and dedication of our county election officials and the hard work and dedication of the people in the Elections Division of the Secretary of State’s Office.”

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