Lincoln man sues Nebraska officials, all of the state's county election commissioners alleging fraud

Rick Hill's suit — against Gov. Pete Ricketts, Secretary of State Bob Evnen, Attorney General Doug Peterson, Speaker of the Legislature Mike Hilgers and Election Systems & Software — includes nine pages of vague allegations of election fraud and QAnon conspiracy theories.

At a hearing Dec. 19, Hill asked Lancaster County District Judge Andrew Jacobsen to allow him to amend his complaint.

"Honestly, it was done on a rant," he said.

If given the chance, Hill said, he would file a pared-down version alleging about 11 claims rather than the 40 in his current complaint.

As it stands, Hill's complaint says that he is suing the group "for allowing unconstitutional elections."

"This is an impeachment of the entire executive and legislative branch for allowing out-and-out violations year after year after year," he wrote, with nothing to substantiate his claims.

The same day of the court hearing, Evnen, Nebraska’s chief election officer, said an expanded, statewide audit of the 2022 general election that included a hand count of more than 48,000 ballots cast found just 11 discrepancies, for a 0.023% error rate.

Hill's lawsuit, which seeks $10 billion, alleges that every U.S. president since Ronald Reagan has been "heavily saturated in pedophilia with the exception of Trump," that COVID-19 was a scam to remove Trump from office and that President Joe Biden wasn't elected but "installed," along with 90% of Lincoln's city council.

"The elected officials of this state think we have fair and honest elections. They are gaslighting us," he said. "That tells me they are in on the corruption."

In September, Hill asked the judge to enter an order protecting election records without the other side being notified. Soon after he was denied, Hill filed an amended complaint including every county election commissioner in the state.

At the Dec. 19 hearing, a troop of lawyers representing them, the state officials and Election Systems & Software argued for the case to be dismissed.

Attorney John Matson, who represents ESS, said Hill's claims boil down to complaints about how government operates and how elections take place, which aren't within the purview of the court.

Courts across the country, both state and federal, regularly are asked by citizens to throw out results of democratically completed elections, and "regularly and consistently dismiss these claims," he argued.

Matson said ESS is seeking sanctions, since this is the second lawsuit Hill has filed based on essentially the same allegations.

"While that may seem innocuous," the attorney said, "it really does create a real prejudice on the defendants that are sued. In our case, Mr. Hill has drug 96 defendants into court."

Attorney Patrick Guinan, who represents a bulk of the election commissioners, said most of Hill's allegations involve the 2020 election and Hill failed to file notice of a tort claim in the counties first, as required to get in the court's front doors.

"As Mr. Hill said, this is just him venting and filing a lawsuit," Guinan said. "Well, him venting and filing a lawsuit has caused how many hundreds of hours of attorney time, clerk time, our elected officials' time to respond to a rant?"

Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Huxoll, who represents the state elected officials, said they understand Hill feels strongly about this.

But Hill "already had an opportunity to clarify his disjointed, rambling and often incoherent arguments made against the state defendants. He chose to file an amended complaint that contained no more specific facts," she and Assistant Attorney General Justin Hall wrote in their brief.

Jacobsen gave Hill time to respond to the briefs seeking to dismiss the case and took the matter under advisement.