MARIJUANA PETITION ADVOCATES: COUNT MONITORING IMPEDED

The validity of a petition that would put a measure to legalize
possession small amounts of marijuana on the November ballot may hinge
on where members of the advocacy group pushing the initiative were
allowed to stand while signatures were being verified.

The Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana, on the heels of a
federal judge's order that all signatures on the petition must be
verified, on Friday complained that the Clark County Elections
Department unfairly limited their movement and access to rooms at the
Clark County Government Center, where employees were double-checking
the signatures.

With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, the group later
gained access to the rooms but were limited as to how close they could
stand to the employees' computer terminals.

In one room, Jennifer Knight, a spokeswoman for the marijuana advocacy
group, said monitors from the committee could only make out the
information on the screen with binoculars.

"Even if you have 20/20 vision you wouldn't be able to see those
computers," Knight said, standing at the back of the room.

Of particular interest to the group were signatures marked possibly
invalid or questionable, Knight said, enough to where those signers
may hold the future of the measure if their signatures can be proved
valid.

Larry Lomax, Clark County registrar of voters, said the room --
normally used for computer training -- is set up in a way that would
make it difficult for monitors to pace the narrow rows.

Election employees expected to have the first stage of the validation
process -- setting aside petitions with questionable signatures --
completed later today, Lomax said this morning. That part was supposed
to be finished Friday, but was delayed by the complaints, he said.

The second part requires election officials to research the signatures
to try to validate them.

Committee officials had previously requested elections officials move
computers so that the computer screens would be easier for monitors to
see, a move Lomax said would delay the process further.

"It can't happen the way the room is configured," Lomax said Friday.
"We'd lose a whole day of processing (signatures)."

Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU of Southern Nevada, said
elections officials told him they would have to obtain a permit to
move the furniture, and that there would not be enough time.

"The explanation that you need a permit to turn around a computer is
pretty lame," Peck said.

Friday's complaints were part of a larger problem stemming from a lack
of consistent guidelines for monitors wanting to observe the
verification process, Peck said.

Lomax said the restrictions were placed only to reduce the amount of
time it took employees to verify the signatures.

"We are complying with letting them see what's going on," he said.
"There's not an attempt to hide anything but we have work to do. We'd
never get a petition processed if we had to argue with every
petitioner like this."