TWO COUNTIES MUST RECHECK NAMES ON MARIJUANA PETITION

CARSON CITY -- Secretary of State Dean Heller said Wednesday Nye and Lyon
counties must re-check signatures of registered voters before the fate of
the medical marijuana petition is known.

It could be 12 days before it is determined if the initiative petition has
the required signatures to qualify for the November election ballot.

Petition backers gathered 74,466 signatures in 13 of the 17 counties. The
law requires 46,764 names of registered voters and 10 percent of the
registered voters in 13 of the 17 counties.

Supporters submitted the necessary signatures in only 13 counties, or the
bare minimum to qualify. Questions remain in Nye and Lyon counties on
whether enough registered voters signed the petitions.

Nye County submitted a revised report Tuesday. While 926 names are needed to
qualify, County Clerk Arte Robb reported only 752 are valid signatures.
Heller, however, said there are 207 signatures which were disqualified by
Robb which are in question.

He said the Robb tossed out the signatures because the person circulating
the petition signed the wrong date. Heller said a 1994 legal opinion by the
state attorney general's office held that an entire document cannot be
disqualified based on flaws of the circulator.

Robb is checking the 207 signatures in question to determine if they belong
to registered voters. If all 207 are valid, that would put the total in Nye
County at 959 signatures, or 33 more than needed.

Heller said he has asked Lyon County to check all of the 1,418 signatures to
see if there are the required 982 from registered voters. A random sampling
by the county of 509 signatures verified 329. To qualify for ballot, using
the sampling method, it would have required 351 signatures.

While Heller estimated Nye County officials would have their results in a
few days, Lyon County has 12 days to verify the full number.

"We're taking our time so there will be no appeal," Heller said. "We're
doing it right the first time so any judge will know it's done correctly."

The petition, which seeks to amend the Nevada Constitution, would permit
people, upon the advice of physicians, to use marijuana for curing or
relieving pain in a number of illness such as cancer and AIDS.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett