Governor Pillen, Secretary of State Evnen, and others who call for legislative change in how signatures are collected to get issues on the ballot have a valid point. The way we currently pay petitioners per signature doesn’t seem to be working.

Governor Pillen wants to stop paying people to get the names. But we can’t throw the baby out with the bath water. In our Unicameral system of government, with a weak Democratic Party, the petition process is the only way to get some important measures before the people.

Nebraska isn’t as red of a state as many people say we are. If you take a look at what the voters pass once it gets on the ballot vs what our elected officials give us when the Unicameral is in session, it’s a tale of two states.

There’s no way our conservative Republican legislators would have passed legislation to legalize medical marijuana, increase the minimum wage, expand Medicaid, end a private school voucher program, or allow us to have casino gambling if it wasn’t for the petition process.

Even after voters have their say on these issues, the Governor, Attorney General, and other conservative powerbrokers in the state do their best to water down, delay, or even totally disregard and dismiss the will of the people.

For Nebraska to move forward, we need the petition process to let voters' voices be heard on issues many legislators don’t want to hear.

But as evidenced by the arrests in Lancaster County, paying petitioners per signature is a flawed system. So how do we make it better?

In a perfect world, every petition drive would be run by dedicated volunteers who were taking time out of their weekends to go door to door or stand in front of stores and libraries to get legitimate signatures.

But we don’t live in that world. To get something on the ballot, we need to pay those who are gathering the signatures.

I don’t mean to be rude, but the men and women who take these jobs don’t always have other options. It’s not like they have the choice of being either an employee who holds a clipboard to collect signatures or a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. There really isn’t any room for upward mobility in these jobs.

But you’d think the possibility of going to jail would be enough motivation to do the job right.

Governor Pillen wants to use this crime as an excuse to get rid of paying petitioners for signatures. But if we don’t pay people, it will, in effect, kill the petition process, taking away the voice of many Nebraskans.

Voices that the governor and other conservative politicians too often don’t want to hear.

Instead of getting rid of the current system, making the rules tougher and the penalties harsher might be a better idea.

Currently, those who are accused of violating the law are charged with just one count of fraud. The penalty for that Class IV Felony is punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment, a $10,000 fine, or both.

Maybe they should reform the law to make it mandatory to add a separate charge for every bogus page turned in. If a petitioner was faced with 30 or more felony charges, they might think twice before making up names and birthdays.

They could also pass legislation where the organization that sponsors the petition could face a civil penalty if they don’t make a good faith effort to check the signatures before submitting them to the Secretary of State.

I’m sure there are other and better ideas to reform the way we do things now. Our senators need to look at all options except the one where we stop paying petitioners altogether.

Governor Pillen knows better than most that money is the lifeblood of politics. Take money away from the petitioners, and you are giving more power to the political establishment and taking away power from the people.

The investigation into this crime continues, and more arrests are expected to be made.

I hope that when the senators return to Lincoln in January, they can find a way to prevent things like this from happening again.

No system is perfect, but getting rid of petitioners would be a crime.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.