Lincoln man loses suit against state officials alleging election fraud

In a recent decision, Lancaster County District Judge Andrew Jacobsen denied Rick Hill's motion to amend his complaint for a third time.

The proposed new version bumped up the money damages he sought from $10 billion in his earlier complaint to $44.7 billion and contained rambling allegations of rigged elections, sought to decertify the 2020 and 2022 elections and challenged the passage of the gambling referendum, among other things.

"I ask of the court for an immediate removal of all Nebraska State, County, City, School Boards, Regents, County Commissioners, Legislatures and any other office in the Legislative and Executive Branches, and declare the last three elections corrupted as an act of war," Hill wrote.

At a hearing in December, Hill asked the judge to allow him to amend his complaint, admitting the current one had been done "on a rant."

It included QAnon theories alleging 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 the Lincoln City Council.

Attorney Patrick Guinan, who represented a bulk of the election commissioners, said most of the 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.

The same day of the court hearing, Secretary of State Bob 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.

But in January, when Hill's brief was due, he filed a third amended complaint instead without permission from the court.

In the spring, Jacobsen dismissed Hill's earlier complaint against Nebraska's governor, secretary of state, attorney general, speaker of the Legislature, election officials in all 93 counties and Election Systems & Software, which alleged they had allowed "unconstitutional elections."

Jacobsen described Hill's complaint as a "rambling preamble of the plaintiff’s political and social commentary."

"A recurring theme is that the elites are rigging our elections," the judge said.

Jacobsen said, if true, such fraud would indeed be greatly concerning. But Hill's objection goes to process, not the form of government. And claims of fraud must be stated with particularity under state statute, he said.

"That standard is clearly not met here," Jacobsen said. 

And he said he did not believe that Hill could cure those problems by amending his complaint, which he denied officially in late June. But he stopped short of approving sanctions against him, as sought by the defendants.

"This lawsuit is meritless. But that does not necessarily mean that it is frivolous," Jacobsen wrote.

But he warned Hill if he filed another lawsuit with the same issues, he would consider sanctions.