Election officials certify petition for Lincoln fair housing ballot initiative

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — A ballot initiative on housing in Lincoln was certified on Friday.

Lancaster County Election Commissioner Todd Wiltgen said the petition had at least 9,798 valid signatures.

The commission stopped after reviewing 700 of the 959 petition pages.

 SEE ALSO: Organizers say fair housing petition in Lincoln surpassed signature requirements

A group called Lincoln for Fair Housing submitted the petition, which would ban source-of-income discrimination by landlords.

The group said landlords are currently allowed to reject potential tenants if they use Section 8 vouchers, Social Security benefits or other forms of assistance.

SEE ALSO: Group launches petition to put housing ballot measure on Lincoln ballot

Organizers were aiming to put the initiative on the May 6 general election ballot.

But Wiltgen said it’s now up to the Lincoln City Council to either adopt the ban as an ordinance or put the question to voters.

And if the council does the latter, the initiative could appear on the ballot as soon as the April 8 primary.

SEE ALSO: ‘No new roads, no new houses’: Lincoln City Council puts sales tax extension on ballot