Nebraska Secretary of State, John Gale announced Tuesday his office is investigating whether election laws were violated by the Nebraska Democratic Party after it sent voter registration forms in gift baskets to newly resettling refugees in Nebraska earlier this month.
State Senator John Murante of Gretna held a press conference Monday afternoon in Lincoln calling for Douglas and Lancaster election offices to ensure no noncitizen refugees are registered to vote if they received one of the welcome baskets.
Jane Kleeb, Chairwoman for the Nebraska Democratic Party says her party did send welcome baskets to two refugee resettling agencies, Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska and the Refugee Empowerment Center.
The baskets included toiletries, a welcome letter from the Democratic Party and a voter registration form.
“The Nebraska Democratic Party fully believes in the integrity of our voting systems of our state and we abide all of those laws,” said Kleeb. “We simply wanted to make sure refugees felt welcomed in our state and understand the civic participation process that our country provides.”
Kleeb added that no voter registration forms made it to refugee families since both nonprofits take out any material that a church or anybody puts inside a basket.
A spokesperson from LFS of Nebraska says they did receive the baskets with the voting registration forms, but removed them before handing them out to refugees.
Murante insists the state’s Democratic Party needs to be accountable, and wants the Party to compile a list of all refugees who might’ve been able to register to vote using the forms provided in the baskets.
"Timing is of the essence because both Lincoln and Omaha have city elections next week so we need to identify now whether any noncitizens are on the voter registration roll,” said Murante.
Murante says if the Democratic Party is unwilling or unable to supply election commissioners with a list of people who received the care packages, he is determined to find another avenue to ensure no noncitizen refugees are registered to vote.
"She [Kleeb] has said at this point that no list exists. We find that answer to be unsatisfactory. We need to find out who these care packages were sent to,” adds Murante.
Murante says he expects the Democratic Party to hand over the list of refugees who received the gift baskets by Wednesday.
