LEGISLATURE MUST REPAIR INITIATIVE LAWS

CARSON CITY -- With a number of provisions in the state's election
laws falling to court challenges, the 2005 Legislature will have some
major repair work to do.

"We're going to be overwhelmed," says Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno,
chairman of the Legislative Committee that handles the work of the
Legislature between sessions.

To get a head start on solving problems that have surfaced this
election season involving initiatives and referendums, the Senate and
Assembly committees need to conduct hearings after the election but
before the Legislature begins, Townsend said.

The most recent blow to the state election laws came Thursday, when
the Nevada Supreme Court invalidated a section of the state's
Constitution that required initiative petition submissions to be
accompanied by affidavits signed by registered voters.

The ruling added two more initiatives to the November ballot -- one to
increase the minimum wage in Nevada and another to prohibit the
Legislature from limiting the amount of money that can be awarded to
winners of civil lawsuits.

Prior to that ruling, a federal district court in Las Vegas had wiped
out a requirement that, to qualify for the election ballot, an
initiative petition must have 10 percent of the signatures of voters
in 13 of the 17 counties.

And the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to rule soon on
an issue involving people who signed petitions and registered to vote
at the same time. Some of those voter registration cards were not
turned in until later and were not processed by the county election
offices, so those people's petition signatures were
disqualified.

The initiative that would change state law to allow adults to possess
up to one ounce of marijuana hangs on the interpretation of the
appellate court. A favorable ruling would give the petition an
additional 2,300 signatures and enough to put it over the 51,337 required.

Meanwhile, the referendum petition to repeal the $833.5 million tax
increase is being appealed to Secretary of State Dean Heller, who is
the chief election officer. Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry
Lomax said that as a result of Thursday's ruling the state Legislature
- -- or perhaps the the secretary of state or the attorney general --
needs to outline new laws for gathering signatures.

Townsend said there is vagueness in the law on election
matters.

He said his Legislative Commission will work with the Assembly
Elections, Procedures and Ethics Committee and the Senate Government
Affairs Committee to try to conduct public hearings before the
Legislature convenes in February.

Renee Parker, chief deputy secretary of state, said Thursday she had
submitted her requests to the Legislature for changes in the election
law. The bill was due by Sept. 1. Parker said, however, that because
of the uncertainty of court cases, the legislative legal staff allowed
her until Nov. 30 to detail what changes have to be made to the bill.

"We will be trying to make a lot of changes, but we are uncertain at
this point what they will be," Parker said.

State Sens. Dennis Nolan and Barbara Cegavske, both Las Vegas
Republicans, have also submitted bill requests that they say are
intended to clear away some of the problems that have arisen this
election season.

Nolan said the biggest complaint from voters is the way circulators
pitch their petition. He said those gathering signatures never inform
the voter of all the issues included in the petition.

Cegavske wants those supporters of an initiative or referendum to
provide a "summary in plain language what the issues propose to do"
before the petition is circulated.