BAINTER: BUCKLEY LIED TO HIGH COURT

Oct. 28 - Democratic secretary of state candidate Ric Bainter on
Tuesday accused Republican incumbent Vikki Buckley of lying to the
state Supreme Court about completing a court-ordered signature count
for Amendment 19, the medical marijuana initiative.

Buckley denied the allegation.

On Oct. 16, Buckley reported to the Supreme Court that a line-byline
count showed that the amendment lacked sufficient valid signatures.
She reported that 51,904 signatures were valid and 36,911 were
invalid. A total of 54,242 valid signatures were needed.

During a news conference at the state Capitol, Bainter said he had
been hearing from people in Buckley's office that the count had never
been completed.

He said a brief filed by proponents Monday with the Supreme Court
"indicates that, in fact, Secretary of State Buckley did not finish
the recount. . . . Her statement of insufficiency shows a number of
insufficient signatures that's almost 2,000 higher than the number of
actual signature entries that she turned over to the
proponents.''

During an interview with a Denver Post reporter, Buckley was asked
whether the line-by-line count had been done:

Q: Was the count completed?

A: "Yes, the count was completed.''

Q: Why the alleged discrepancy?

A: "I don't know. As a matter of fact, as you know, the attorney
general is handling this in the court case. I've sat down with my
deputy attorney general, and we will be reviewing what the motion was
that was turned in, apparently (Monday), to the district court. And
what we'll be reviewing that. And what we'll be doing is reviewing the
accepts as well as the rejects.''

Sam Riddle, Buckley's campaign consultant, said: "From a pure
political perspective, let's face it, Ric Bainter is a desperate
politician, and he's doing everything he can to keep his name before
the people.''

Bainter said that each of the signatures is entered into a database as
it is checked, and when the checking is finished, a list of invalid
signatures is printed out. He said the fact that the list of
signatures was about 2,000 short of the total number of signatures
that Buckley reported to the Supreme Court indicates "that she was
about 2,000 signatures short of finishing the signature check.''

"In effect, she lied to the Supreme Court about finishing that recount
of Amendment 19,'' Bainter said, "lied to the people of Colorado about
it, and it raises, I think, very serious concerns'' about the
integrity of the ballot and the secretary of state's office.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry