POT-INITIATIVE SIGNATURES RULED INSUFFICIENT

Oct. 17 - Secretary of State Vikki Buckley ruled Friday that there are
insufficient signatures for a Nov. 3 ballot measure that would allow
people with debilitating medical conditions to use marijuana.

Proponents vowed to explore all legal avenues to keep the issue alive,
but for now votes cast for Amendment 19 next month will not count.

Buckley ruled that petitions submitted by supporters fell 2,338 votes
short of qualifying. Amendment 19 will still appear on the ballot,
which was printed several weeks ago.

The state Supreme Court, which got involved when Buckley appealed a
district court ruling, directed Buckley on Oct. 5 to count votes cast
for the initiative "if and only if'' she had determined there were a
sufficient number of signatures.

Buckley said Friday that 51,904 of the 88,815 submitted signatures
were valid, falling short of the required 54,242.

Reasons for throwing out signatures included not being able to find
the signer on voter registration rolls, addresses that didn't match
the signers', use of post office boxes instead of home addresses,
failure to sign, no signing date listed, people who signed more than
once, illegibility and people who registered to vote after signing the
petition.

"We remain in this really weird limbo,'' said Luther Symons, a
spokesman for the proponents, Coloradans for Medical Rights. "What
really concerns me is voters will think their votes for Amendment 19
won't count. We encourage voters to cast their ballots for the issue.''

Symons said the group will immediately begin to review Buckley's work
for errors. "Should we find any reason to believe that she has not
accurately counted the signatures, we will pursue all of our legal
remedies so this question can come before the voters,'' he said.

Buckley's opponent in the upcoming election, Ric Bainter, called the
situation "somewhat of a tragedy.''

"Both sides were put through this tortured process,'' Bainter said.
"Now it's less than three weeks before the election and this still
isn't decided.''

Bainter noted that two other initiatives - parental notice for minors
seeking abortions and term limits - also got on the ballot "by default.''

On Oct. 5, Buckley began a line-by-line review of the 88,815
signatures on petitions seeking to put the medicinal marijuana measure
on the ballot. The state Supreme Court gave Buckley 10 days to do the
recount.

Buckley was supposed to have completed the review Thursday but asked
the high court for a 24 hour extension because she couldn't hire enough
temporary workers to do the work. The court pushed aside an objection
by Coloradans for Medical Rights, which said another delay was
"absolutely intolerable.''

The state Supreme Court got involved after Buckley filed an appeal of
a Denver District Court ruling. Judge Herbert Stern had ordered Sept.
11 that the measure be put on the ballot unconditionally after Buckley
conceded in a Sept. 4 hearing that her random sampling of signatures
had been inaccurate.

On Aug. 6, after using a random sampling technique, Buckley ruled that
only 47,960 of the 88,815 signatures were valid - short of the 54,242
signatures needed.

"At this point, we're going to check the validity of her work,''
Symons said Friday. "Given our history with the secretary of state's
office, we are far from trusting.''

Symons said the signature shortfall is "a very tiny margin - just 6
percent short. Last time we checked her work, we found 11 percent to
12 percent errors.''

The proponents began the work Friday night, although Buckley's office
handed over data on only 10,882 of the submitted signatures. The
remainder was promised to be ready Monday.

"From a political standpoint, we will move forward as though this ruling
hadn't happened. We won't stop the campaign,'' Symons said.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry