INITIATIVE PETITIONS TO APPEAR ON BALLOT

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court ruled today that initiative
petitions to raise the state minimum wage and to prevent frivolous
lawsuits are qualified to be on the November election ballot.

The court upheld a ruling by District Judge Bill Maddox of Carson
City, who threw out a rule requiring petition circulators who are not
registered voters get an affidavit signed by a registered voter on
each petition document.

The court said that the rule, which is in the state constitution,
"impermissibly burdens political speech by either compelling the use
of only registered voters as circulators or compelling unregistered
circulators to be accompanied by a registered voter who is willing to
sign a petition booklet and execute an affidavit under oath
authenticating that booklet's signatures."

Danny Thompson, the executive secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO of
Nevada, which is pushing the minimum-wage hike, called the Supreme
Court decision a "victory for the people."

"You have to have the ability to petition government," he
said.

Secretary of State Dean Heller had said that thousands of signatures
on the two petitions needed to be disqualified because they were not
accompanied by the required affidavit.

Supporters of the two petitions filed suit and Maddox struck down the
requirement. Heller, the State Medical Association and the Las Vegas
Chamber of Commerce appealed to the state Supreme Court.

Heller appealed the issue to the Nevada Supreme Court because he
wanted a court precedent, spokesman Steve George said.

"We had conflicting law between the U.S. Supreme Court and the Nevada
Constitution," he said. "Their (the state Supreme Court's) decision
will help clarify that issue in the future."

George said this morning he had not yet had a chance to read the
decision so he could not comment on it.

The state Supreme Court's decision comes after the U.S. Supreme Court
issued an opinion in a Colorado case that a circulator of a petition
does not have to be a registered voter.

The Nevada Supreme Court said the extra steps required in the state
Constitution and regulations requiring an added affidavit, "impose a
burden on political speech that is no less severe than the direct
registration requirement invalidated" in the Colorado case.

More than 13,000 signatures on the minimum wage petition were not
counted because of the alleged legal defect. The frivolous lawsuit
petition lost more than 10,000 signatures because of the problem.

But the Maddox ruling allowed those to be counted and put both of them
over the required 51,337 signatures of registered voters.

Thompson said he doesn't agree with all of the initiatives that could
be headed to the ballot but he thinks the secretary of state should
not enforce the rule that required the affidavit.

"It made no sense and every judge that's ever heard this, including
the Supreme Court, said it doesn't make sense to make people sign this
twice," Thompson said. "I think the people won today."

Plus, he said, the AFL-CIO followed the instructions for gathering
signatures that was laid out by the Secretary of State.

Gail Tuzzolo, a campaign consultant who helped gather signatures for
the minimum wage petition and the frivolous lawsuit petition, said she
thinks the affidavit rule was randomly enforced this year.

"We have done signatures in the past the same way we did them this way
and they were never questioned before," she said.

The minimum wage petition would raise the rate by $1 an hour and by
the cost of living up to 3 percent in years after it is effective. The
other would penalize lawyers that file frivolous suits and would
prohibit limiting the award of damages to a person who wins civil
lawsuits known as torts.

The decision only will affect the frivolous lawsuit petition and the
minimum wage petition, George said. Another petition to regulate up to
one ounce of marijuana is still in the courts but is under review by
the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, he said.