Casino news from http://nebraska.statepaper.com/
Depending on how fast signatures can be counted, and the time appellate courts need to review the matter, Nebraskans might have a chance to vote in November on a plan for building three casinos.
District Judge Karen Flowers ruled Thursday that signatures on initiative petitions seeking a vote on the gambling proposal should be counted.
Attorney General Jon Bruning promptly took the case from Flowers’ court and went down the street to the state Court of Appeals.
Secretary of State John Gale previously said the petition proposal was basically the same as one that went to the people in 2004. The state constitution says a given initiative proposal cannot appear on a statewide ballot more than once every three years.
Gale said he would send the petitions to officials in individual counties to have signatures verified. Gale has until September 15 to certify issues and candidates for the general election ballot.
He could have virtually assured the issue would not appear on the ballot; he has authority to delay the count until the case has completed the judicial process. Gale has that discretion because Bruning advised him that the petitions did violate the resubmission clause of the state constitution.
In her decision, Flowers said the petition proposal did not violate the resubmission rule. The 2004 proposal was known as Initiative 420.
“To say that the three-casino initiative and Initiative 420 are the same in essential substance is to ignore those provisions that would have brought gambling, other than casino gambling, into numerous locations throughout the state, something the three-casino initiative doesn’t do,” Flowers wrote.
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