POT PETITION APPEALS TO SECRETARY OF STATE

CARSON CITY -- The Secretary of State's office plans a prompt investigation
of claims that there are enough valid signatures on petitions in two rural
counties to qualify an initiative on the medical use of marijuana for the
November ballot.

Nevadans for Medical Rights on Tuesday contested the finding of Secretary
of State Dean Heller that the petitions had fallen short of the required
signatures in Lyon County by seven signers and in Nye County by 36
signatures.

The petitions seek to change the Nevada Constitution to permit a person,
upon the advice of a physician, to use marijuana for the treatment and
alleviation of pain of a variety of ailments. A minor would be required to
get the permission of a doctor and parents.

The organization, through its Las Vegas lawyer Donald Campbell, filed its
appeal minutes before the 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline and asked Heller to
re-examine scores of signatures that had been declared invalid.

The group gathered more than 70,000 signatures in 13 of the state's 17
counties. The law requires 46,764 signatures of registered voters and 10
percent of voters in 13 of the 17 counties. Nye and Lyon originally
reported that the petitions had failed. Heller then asked that the figures
be re-examined and the names verified.

Lyon and Nye again reported the petitions were short.

But Campbell said another check shows more than adequate signatures in the
two counties.

Pamela Crowell, deputy secretary of state for elections, said it would
conduct an "expeditious" examination of the signatures in question to
determine whether they were, in fact, those of registered voters. If the
petition is denied again, the medical marijuana organization can appeal to
the courts.

In Lyon County, Angelo Paparella, a representative of Progressive Campaigns
Inc., which did the gathering of signatures, performed an independent
review of the signers who were declared invalid. He reported finding at
least 25 signatures that should have been counted.

He said Lyon County Deputy Clerk Tricia Umphries agreed that the 25 are
signatures of verified voters, which would put the petition over the top.
In addition, Paparella said, there were another six signatures that were
crossed out that should have been tallied.

In Nye County, Klinton Kinder also of Progressive Campaigns, found that the
county clerk had miscounted the number of valid signatures. He said there
should be 914, rather than the 890 reported. Kinder also said that at least
37 signatures, originally declared invalid for not being from registered
voters, were in fact from people who were registered at the time they
signed their names.

Kinder also found that 14 signatures were disqualified because they were
from people not registered to vote. But those people had registered to vote
at the same time they signed the petition and should be counted, he said.
Counting those signatures easily would put the petition over the top.

In addition, on the final day the signatures were to be turned into the
county clerk, June 16, Kinder said two women who had 90 signatures on a
petition were turned away in Nye County because they were less than two
minutes late.

The 90 additional signatures are locked in a safe in the law offices of
Campbell and should be counted, petition supporters said.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)