On July 29, 2024, Steve Smith, Civic Nebraska’s director of communications, addressed a news conference about the organization’s involvement in legal action to instruct the state’s executive branch to follow the law and begin registering voters whose civil rights have been restored under LB20. Here are his prepared remarks.

Thank you, everyone, for being here today. Hopefully, this is the first and last time we will have to gather to discuss this unprecedented and unfortunate situation.

As you’ve seen, Civic Nebraska is among the plaintiffs in the legal action brought today, and, this being a consequential election year, we hope the Court will deliver a speedy resolution.

Because we have work to do.

Civic Nebraska’s core mission is to engage and assist Nebraskans who wish to register to vote. We do this so that all of us can participate fully in our democratic society. And we believe that a truly representative democracy is possible only when as many voices as possible can be heard. Since LB20 passed overwhelmingly through the Nebraska Legislature in mid-April, Civic Nebraska has been conceiving, planning, and building a robust voter registration initiative to help the thousands of affected Nebraskans register.

This work was set to start July 19, but we were forced to halt that work – abruptly – less than two days before the law was to take effect because of the actions of our state’s executive branch. In having to reverse our plans, Civic Nebraska has incurred unexpected and unnecessary costs, and the fallout from the secretary of state’s actions has diverted our focus away from our mission. 

So today, we have turned to the Nebraska Supreme Court to instruct the executive branch to do what it will not do; follow the law. It’s a straightforward request for the Court to confirm that Nebraskans who have fully paid their debt to society can register to vote according to the law on the books. 

The stakes here are self-evident. The executive branch’s actions have disenfranchised a significant segment of our state’s electorate. Tens of thousands of voters’ rights have just disappeared at one person’s discretion.

This undermines the core democratic principles that Civic Nebraska strives to uphold. Our organization is committed to ensuring that all eligible citizens have the opportunity to participate in the democratic process. And it is well within our mission to challenge decisions such as this that unjustly disregard our fellow Nebraskans’ rights.

In closing, I’ll say this: By challenging this directive, Civic Nebraska is not simply joining a lawsuit to protect the rights of a finite number of our state’s voters. We are defending the very essence of democratic self-government – where every voice matters, every vote counts, and where no one should live in fear that their government is coming for more of their rights.

Thank you.