This is an original action by the State of Nebraska on the *755 relation of Don Stenberg, Attorney General, requesting this court to declare certain sections of 1992 Neb. Laws, L.B. 424, to be unconstitutional as violative of Neb. Const, art. Ill, §§ 2 to 4, as well as of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The challenged sections of L.B. 424 are as follows:
Sec. 14....
(4) Every circulator of a petition shall be of the constitutionally prescribed age or upwards and a resident and a registered voter of the State of Nebraska and a resident of the county in which he or she is registered to vote. Any person willfully and knowingly circulating a petition outside of the county in which he or she is registered to vote shall be guilty of a Class I misdemeanor.
(5) All signatures secured in á manner cоntrary to sections 32-702 to 32-713 shall not be counted. Clerical and technical errors in a petition shall be disregarded if the forms prescribed in this section are substantially followed.
Pursuant to the application of the relator, the respondents, Allen J. Beérmann, Secretary of State, and Gáry E. Lacey, county attorney of Lancaster County, Nebraska, were temporarily enjoined from enforcing the challenged provisions of the act pending further action by the court. The relator now seeks to convert our previous order to a permanent injunction.
“The first power reserved by the people is the initiative whereby laws may be enacted and constitutional amendments adopted by the people independently of the Legislature.” Neb. Const, art. Ill, §2. “The provisions with respect to the initiative and referendum shall be self-executing, but lеgislation may be enacted to facilitate their operation.” Neb. Const, art. Ill, § 4.
In
State, ex rel. Winter,
v.
Swanson,
We think the constitutional provision authorizing the legislature to enaсt laws to facilitate the operation of the initiative power means that it may enact reasonable legislаtion to prevent fraud or to render intelligible the *756 purpose of the proposed law or constitutional amendment. See State v. Amsberry,104 Neb. 273 ,177 N.W. 179 . Any legislative act which tends to insure a fair, intelligent, and impartial result on the part of the electorate mаy be said to facilitate the exercise of the initiative power.
In that case we held that the requirement that the form of the petition be filed with the Secretary of State renders the proposal intelligible and eliminates the possibilities of fraud by advising the electorate in advance of the exact' provisions of the proposal. The Legislature was authorized to enact said requirements under its granted authority to facilitate the exercise of the initiative pоwer.
In Klosterman
v.
Marsh,
[constitutional provisions with respect to the right of initiative and referendum reserved to the people should be construed to make effective the powers reserved. The case of State ex rel. Ayres v. Amsberry,104 Neb. 273 ,177 N.W. 179 , although later vacated on procedural grounds stated: “The amendment under consideration reserves to the people thе right to act in the capacity of legislators. The presumption should be in favor of the validity and legality of their act. Thе law should be construed, if possible, so as to prevent absurdity and hardship and so as to favor public conveniencе.” The court later said: “Any legislation which would hamper or render ineffective the power reserved to the peоple would be unconstitutional.”
In language vital to the case at hand, we also said, in
State, ex rel. Ayres,
v.
Amsberry,
The effect of the challenged provisiоns of L.B. 424 is to Balkanize the initiative process in this state. Not one statewide campaign to enact laws, but at least 38 separate campaigns, would now be required. It is difficult to justify a provision that does not. and cannot forbid the financing of рaid circulators in the individual counties, but forbids circulation across county lines. Indeed, the effect of the law is to plаce impossible barriers to the economically less fortunate to successfully initiate legislation if they cannot аfford to pay local circulators and are forbidden to solicit outside their own counties.
In a participatory system of government the voices pressing their views on their elected officiáls reflect the broad spectrum of the tоtal society. It is an obvious truth that no one view is more entitled to be expressed than another. The judgment of the majority оr the economically privileged as to the accepted and proper view of an issue, and the supprеssion of the minority’s right of expression, is tyranny, no matter how wise and reasoned the majority opinion.
We hold that § 14(4) of 1992 Neb. Laws, L.B. 424, and § 14(5) of the same act, to the extent it is referable to violations of § 14(4), violate Neb. Const, art. III, § 4, by impeding the initiative and referendum process instead of facilitating the process as the Constitution requires.
As the act is violative of the Nebraska Constitution, it is riot necessary to answer the challenge that the sections also violate the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Judgment of unconstitutionality.