STATE WON'T COUNT MARIJUANA VOTE

Petitions for drug's use as legal medicine short of signatures

It's official. Coloradans won't get to vote Nov. 3 on whether to use
marijuana as a medicine.

The on-again, off-again ballot proposal is off, even though it will be
printed on everyone's ballot. Election officials just won't tabulate the
votes.

Using an extra 24 hours granted by the Colordo Supreme Court, Secretary of
State Vikki Buckley ruled Friday that there weren't enough valid signatures
for the medical marijuana proposal to be on the ballot.

A line-by-line check ordered by the court revealed the petitions lacked the
required 54,242 signatures of registered electors, Buckley said. She said
the petitions fell 2,338 signatures short.

Buckley accepted 51,904 signatures and rejected 36,911.

The proposal would have allowed Coloradans with "debilitating medical
conditions" such as cancer, AIDS or glaucoma to use marijuana if a doctor
believed it might help.

Supporters were stunned by the news. But they said the fight might not be
over.

"We will be checking every bit of work that she did to make sure there
aren't massive errors like we found before," said Luther Symons, a spokesman
for Coloradans for Medical Rights.

"Should we find any legal basis for challenging this ruling, for example
that she made a large number of errors, we will pursue all of our legal
remedies. We will be carefully checking anything and everything. That effort
will begin immediately."

Opponents were cheered. Citizens Against the Legalization of Marijuana
virtually had shut down in August after Buckley said a random sampling
showed the petitions lacked sufficient signatures.

"That's very good news for the people of Colorado and especially the youth
of Colorado," said retired prosecutor Roger Allott, who co-chairs the
opposition group with Arapahoe County Sheriff Pat Sullivan.

Allott said opponents, including prosecutors, law enforcement authorities,
health officials and church groups, had been gearing up to make a round of
speeches if the measure was placed back on the ballot.

"This would have increased the potential for children to use marijuana if it
passed," Allott said. "That would have been a very grim outlook for Colorado
and the kids."

After Buckley's initial ruling in August, supporters went to court,
complaining that signature counters had done shoddy work. Buckley conceded
some errors had been made.

Denver District Court Judge Herbert Stern on Sept. 10 ordered the measure
placed on the ballot. But the Colorado Supreme Court intervened Oct. 5,
ordering that Buckley make a line-by-line counting.

The court initially gave Buckley 10 days to complete the job, but tossed in
an extra 24 hours Thursday when she said she couldn't get enough temporary
workers in time. Because the issue already is on the ballot, the court ruled
that votes would not be counted if it lacked sufficient signatures.

Ric Bainter, Buckley's Democratic opponent, sharply criticized the GOP
officeholder's handling of the matter and other issues.

"It's just a tragedy this thing is continuing to drag on and there's
uncertainty in the process," Bainter said. "The whole process is too
important to be mismanaged like this."

Checked-by: Don Beck