MEDICAL POT BACKERS BREATH FIRE INTO VOTE

Group assails Buckley as it goes to court to get ballots counted

Secretary of State Vikki Buckley's review of signatures on medical
marijuana petitions was so "recklessly wrong" that the results are "pure
fiction," supporters charged Monday.

Coloradans for Medical Rights made the accusation in a brief filed with
the Colorado Supreme Court. It was the latest move in a battle to have
officials count votes cast for Amendment 19 on Nov. 3.

"There's no reason to trust anything that has come out of her office,"
insisted Luther Symons, a spokesman for proponents. "This process has
been so rife with errors, there's no reason to trust anything that has
happened."

Buckley issued a statement accusing the proponents of having "conjured
up allegations."

"They did not have enough valid signatures to merit being on the 1998
November ballot," she said.

The measure is on the ballot, but votes won't be counted because Buckley
has ruled that petitions fell 2,338 short of the 54,242 signatures
needed.

Under the proposal, people suffering from debilitating diseases such as
cancer or AIDS could use marijuana for relief of symptoms if they have a
doctor's recommendation.

Buckley initially rejected petitions, but a Denver court ordered her to
put it on the ballot. The Colorado Supreme Court then ordered her to
make a line-by-line review to determine whether there were sufficient
signatures. She rejected them again.

In Monday's brief, lawyer Ed Ramey said the figures released after the
line-by-line review "appear to be pure fiction." He noted that Buckley
ruled 36,911 names were invalid, but when proponents asked to see them,
she gave them 35,151 names.

Ramey's brief said a "review of the secretary of state's records has now
made it regretfully apparent that the secretary of state has grossly
misrepresented even the number of signature entries which her office
actually reviewed.

"The secretary seems bound and determined to do everything she can in
this case to thwart the electoral will of the people by disrupting this
election on her own," the brief states.

Deputy Attorney General Maurice Knaizer, representing Buckley's office,
asked the court to reject the proponents' request, saying that it's too
late to determine the validity of those signatures that were tossed out.

"If, in fact, the review by the court shows there are sufficient
signatures, then the matter should be on the ballot in 2000," Knaizer
said.

"We aren't going to be able to have a court hearing between now and
election day to determine that."

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst