Lincoln, Neb. — The Nebraska Secretary of State’s office announced Friday that Brett Lindstrom did not meet the statutory requirements to appear as a nonpartisan candidate for governor on the 2026 general election ballot. The Lindstrom campaign submitted 5,765 signatures, of which 3,358 signatures were validated.
To be placed on the ballot by petition as a candidate for Governor, at least 4,000 valid signatures from registered Nebraska voters must be collected and, of those, there must be at least 750 from registered voters in each of the three congressional districts.
During the signature validation process a significant number of signatures were found to be fraudulent. A number of the submitted petition pages containing fraudulent signatures had been circulated by three of the individuals who were arrested earlier this month on suspicion of circulator fraud. Information has been passed along to the Nebraska Attorney General’s office for further investigation.
After the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office determined that the petition campaign came up short, the Lindstrom campaign announced that petition fraud committed by individuals working for a professional signature-collection firm has cost the campaign its place on the November ballot for Governor of Nebraska.
Campaign organizers said the loss of the 1,543 fraudulent signatures caused the campaign to fall short of the statewide requirement. As a result, Lindstrom’s name will not appear on the ballot for Governor this November.
“I was not aware of this activity. Our campaign and the thousands of Nebraskans who participated honestly in this process are victims of petition fraud,” Lindstrom said. “We are pursuing every legal avenue available to us and intend to hold those responsible accountable.”
“The ideas and solutions we have put forward over the last several months do not disappear because my name will not be on a ballot. Neither does my commitment to them,” Lindstrom said. “
Lindstrom said the vision of his campaign is laid out in The Nebraska Doctrine, the policy roadmap the campaign released earlier this year. He said, more than a campaign platform, the Doctrine is a blueprint for where Nebraska can go and how the state can get there.
The Nebraska Doctrine is available in full at NebraskaDoctrine.com.
Fremont, NE – Gubernatorial candidate Lynne Walz released the following statement on the petition collection fraud.
“This is the second time in the past few weeks that fraud in the petition process has disqualified a candidate or initiative effort,” said Walz. “Nebraskans deserve transparency and accountability around the circulators, the firm, or anybody else who was involved or aware. We appreciate the election officials who caught the fraud, and it shows the system works.”
