Nebraska Preferences Bill Headed to November Ballot

California businessman Ward Connerly is enjoying success in Nebraska but failure in Arizona this week in a national effort to dismantle preferential-treatment programs for women and minorities.

He offered a $10,000 reward in Arizona to anyone who can provide information about fraud he says may have kept an initiative off the November ballot. Connerly’s American Civil Rights Institute is sending a team of lawyers to the state after Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer announced Thursday the measure got about 35,000 signatures too few.

“All our opponents know if we get it on the ballot, it passes,” Connerly said Friday.

In Nebraska, Secretary of State John Gale said Friday the initiative had 24,000 more valid signatures than it needed to make it on the November ballot.

Signatures were still being reviewed in Colorado, but similar attempts failed this year in Missouri and Oklahoma. {snip}

The proposed constitutional amendment never uses the words “affirmative action.” But it would prohibit state and local governments from giving preferential treatment to people on the basis of race, sex, ethnicity or national origin.

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