LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office says a petition drive to overturn the repeal of the state’s death penalty appears to have met the threshold to get the issue on the ballot.

As of Friday, county officials from around the state reported verifying 65,171 of the nearly 166,000 signatures turned in by petition organizers.

The Secretary of State’s Office says there are nearly 1.139 million registered voters in Nebraska. Organizers needed valid signatures from 5 percent of registered voters, or just under 57,000, to put the issue on the November 2016 general election ballot.

The effort needs 10 percent of registered voters’ signature to prevent the death penalty repeal passed by lawmakers last spring from going into effect until the vote occurs.

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