Egbert / Todd Petition Fraud Convictions

Last verified: May 2026

Michael K. Egbert — The Phone-Book Forgery

Michael K. Egbert of Grand Island was a paid circulator hired by the Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana ballot campaign during the 2024 cycle. On September 13, 2024, AG Mike Hilgers and Hall County Attorney Marty Klein announced a Class IV felony charge against Egbert under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 32-1546(2) for "false swearing into a circulator’s affidavit."

Egbert later admitted to investigators that he had used a phone book to forge signatures on petitions he was paid to circulate. The forgery scheme involved Egbert copying names and addresses from local phone listings rather than collecting genuine voter signatures. Egbert pleaded guilty in November 2024 to a Class I misdemeanor "attempt" charge (a reduction from the original Class IV felony), was fined $250, and avoided incarceration.

Jacy C. Todd — The Notary Misconduct Conviction

Jacy C. Todd of York was a notary public who notarized many of Egbert’s petition affidavits. Todd was simultaneously a Republican primary candidate for governor against Pillen in the 2026 cycle.

February 25, 2026: Todd was convicted by a Hall County jury of all 24 counts of "official misconduct" — 23 days of improper notarizations of Egbert’s petitions plus one perjury count. The jury verdict was unanimous and reached after relatively short deliberation.

April 22, 2026: Todd was sentenced by Hall County Court Judge Alfred Corey to nearly $4,000 in fines and court fees, no jail. Corey’s sentencing remarks: "The court, after hearing the evidence, didn’t believe that this was just a mistake."

The Hilgers Statement

AG Hilgers issued a statement after Todd’s conviction:

"As we have said all along, the medical marijuana petition campaign was built on fraud and malfeasance and ultimately should never have been on the ballot in the first place."

Crista Eggers (executive director of Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana) responded: "We stand, I stand, my organization stands and I believe the voters stand behind that these were absolutely legally on the ballot."

The Two-Bad-Actors Theory in Civil Litigation

The criminal convictions of Egbert and Todd became the factual predicate for Kuehn’s civil signature-validity theory in Kuehn v. Evnen. See Kuehn v. Evnen page. Kuehn argued that the pervasive notary malfeasance and circulator fraud should taint all signatures touched by Egbert and Todd, even those that would individually be valid. The theory would have invalidated approximately 49,000 signatures per petition.

Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong rejected the bulk-invalidation theory in her November 26, 2024 order, holding that Nebraska law requires individualized signature-by-signature challenge with proof of specific defect. Opponents could only individually disqualify 711 signatures on the legalization petition and 826 on the regulatory petition — far short of the ~3,464 / ~3,358 needed.

The Nebraska Supreme Court appeal heard December 3, 2025 turns on whether the bulk-invalidation theory should be available as a remedy for systematic notary malfeasance. ⚠️ As of late April 2026, no ruling has issued.

The Todd Gubernatorial Candidacy Context

Jacy Todd’s status as a Republican primary candidate for governor against Pillen in the 2026 cycle complicated the political optics of the prosecution. Todd ran as an "anti-establishment" challenger to the incumbent governor. The conviction ended Todd’s candidacy effectively. Some observers noted the unusual posture of an AG prosecution targeting a same-party gubernatorial primary challenger.

The Petition-Process Implications

The Egbert / Todd convictions illustrate vulnerabilities in Nebraska’s ballot-petition process:

• Paid circulators have economic incentive to inflate signature counts.
• Notarial verification can be defeated when notaries fail to verify circulator-affidavit content.
• Phone-book forgery is detectable through cross-checks with voter-registration databases (which is how Egbert was caught) but the cross-checking process is labor-intensive.
• Sec. of State signature verification ultimately succeeded in catching the forged signatures — the petition still cleared the constitutional minimum after invalid signatures were stripped.

Comparable Petition-Fraud Prosecutions in Other States

Petition fraud convictions are uncommon but not unprecedented in U.S. ballot-initiative history:

• Missouri 2018 — petition workers convicted of forgery in Right-to-Work referendum campaign.
• Arizona 2020 — petition workers convicted in Smart and Safe Arizona (adult-use cannabis) verification effort.
• Massachusetts 2022 — gig-economy ballot-question petition workers prosecuted for false-affidavit violations.

In each case, the underlying ballot measure was certified by election officials despite the worker-level prosecutions. Nebraska’s outcome — the petitions cleared the certification process while the petition workers were criminally prosecuted — mirrors that pattern.

The Going-Forward Petition Process

The Egbert / Todd convictions have prompted discussion of tightened circulator-affidavit standards in Nebraska’s petition process. As of May 2026, no statutory amendments have been enacted. The Sec. of State’s office has indicated that future petition drives will face heightened scrutiny on circulator-affidavit completeness, paid-circulator registration, and notarial-verification procedures.

Related on this site: Kuehn v. Lippincott et al., Send a Message, Contact CannabisNebraska.org.