MORE OBSTACLES FOR PETITIONERS

Absurd Attorney General Opinion Makes Signature Requirement A Moving Target

Initiative petitioners have faced plenty of obstacles collecting signatures
over the past couple of years. When they weren't being chased off public
property by government employees, they were forced to comply with
unconstitutional rules that required them to gather autographs in rural
outposts and then have voters sign confusing affidavits in addition to the
petitions.

Despite winning court battles over those wrongs, petitioners are headed
back before a judge because they now can't be certain of the number of
signatures they need to qualify issues for legislative consideration or an
election.

The Marijuana Policy Project and the American Civil Liberties Union have
sued the state in federal court over Secretary of State Dean Heller's
disqualification of petitions to legalize the use of marijuana and restrict
smoking in public places.

When the petitioners began their efforts last year, they were told they
needed 51,337 valid signatures to qualify their issues -- a published guide
from Mr. Heller spelled it out. That number represented 10 percent of the
statewide voter turnout in the 2002 election.

The petitioners turned in more than enough signatures, but did so Nov. 9, a
week after that month's general election. They could have done so weeks
sooner, but overwhelmed county election officials asked them to wait. By
law, registrars have four days to tally the number of signatures submitted,
and counting them amid a presidential election bordered on impossible.
Verifying the signatures of registered voters takes weeks more.

The office of Attorney General Brian Sandoval then changed all the rules.
In a legal opinion issued after the signatures were turned in, Mr. Sandoval
declared that the number of signatures needed to qualify an initiative
petition cannot be determined before petitioners begin their efforts. The
number can't even be determined when completed petitions are submitted to
government offices for verification. No, the number of signatures needed to
qualify an initiative petition can only be determined after election
officials have completed the weeks-long process of verifying the signatures
of registered voters. Only when that process is finished can the 10 percent
standard of the most recent election be applied.

Because that procedure was completed well after the Nov. 2 election, which
had much higher voter turnout than the 2002 ballot, the attorney general
determined that 83,156 signatures were required. Even if the petitioners
had submitted their signatures by Oct. 1, they certainly would have been
disqualified because swamped election workers wouldn't have had time to
verify tens of thousands of signatures before the Nov. 2 election.

The attorney general's opinion has no basis in logic and further
complicates what should be a straightforward process. When initiative
petitioners begin collecting signatures, they should not be aiming for a
moving target. Those who exercise this constitutional right should know
that if they complete their work before an election, the standard of the
previous election will apply.

The marijuana and public smoking petitions should be forwarded to the 2005
Legislature, and if lawmakers exercise their right to ignore the issues,
then they should be placed on the 2006 ballot.