AX THE TAX REFERENDUM IN HANDS OF APPEALS COURT

Anti-Tax Group Hopes to Reinstate 4,000 Disqualified
Signatures

CARSON CITY -- A referendum to let voters decide whether to throw out
last year's tax increases won't qualify for November's ballot unless
an appeals court allows 4,000 disqualified signatures, an anti-tax
activist said Monday.

"If we can count them, Ax the Tax is on the ballot," said George
Harris, chairman of Nevadans for Sound Government. "If not, then they
are disenfranchising thousands of voters."

Two weeks ago, Secretary of State Dean Heller ruled Harris' petition
fell 2,099 signatures short of the 51,337 minimum necessary to win a
spot on the Nov. 2 election ballot. Heller ordered county clerks and
voting registrars to recheck every signature because of a law
requiring recounts when petitions have at least 90 percent of the
required total.

Harris said when his group turned in 69,000 signatures, he was
confident the recount would show the petition qualified for the
ballot. Thursday is the deadline for county clerks and voting
registrars to finish the recount.

But U.S. District Judge James Mahan ruled Aug. 13 that many signatures
on petitions should not be counted.

In reviewing a petition to let voters legalize marijuana, Mahan said
signatures of people who registered to vote and then signed a petition
on the same day should not be always counted. He said the voter
registration applications had to be given to election departments or
county clerks on that day, or mailed in and postmarked on that day.

Harris said his petition circulators registered 4,000 people who
signed the anti-tax petition, along with another petition to let
voters decide whether government employees should be able to hold
elective offices.

Because their registration applications were not turned in until
later, under the Mahan decision the signatures cannot be included in
the recount.

According to Harris, failing to include these signatures violates the
1971 U.S. Voting Rights Act, which states people should not be
prevented from voting because of any error in a voter
application.

Gary Peck, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of
Nevada, backs Harris' position. His lawyers on Friday joined the
Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana in appealing the Mahan
decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

If the court rules in favor of counting the signatures on the
marijuana petition, Peck said it also would apply to the anti-tax
referendum and other petitions.

"The mere fact registration documents were submitted a day or two
later ought not to disqualify these people," Peck said.

Under Mahan's order, Peck maintains petition circulators would be
prevented from gathering signatures on a Sunday or during evenings
because election departments and post offices are closed. His lawyers
have asked the appeals court to make an expedited ruling.

Carson City Clerk Alan Glover said the county clerks and voting
registrars want legal questions about the petitions resolved by Sept.
7.

He said sample ballots for the November election must be prepared and
printed shortly after that date.

Glover said his staff always rejected signatures on petitions if the
day the signer's voter registration application was processed fell
after the day he signed the petition.

If they did not use that policy, Glover said someone who registered
voters could procrastinate in sending in the voter application for "10
years and we would have to count it."

Nikki Bryan, the Lyon County clerk, followed the same policy as Carson
City.

"We don't really count them as registered until we have the
registration in our office," she said. "They could register on August
5th, but if we didn't get it until August 7th, they aren't registered
until August 7th."

Other county clerks, however, said they have counted petition
signatures, regardless of when the signer's voter registration
application was processed.

"We felt the law said they were registered to vote the day they
completed their applications," said Barbara Reed, the Douglas County
clerk.

Tami Rae Spero, the Humboldt County clerk, handled petition signatures
the same way. In a prepared statement, she noted that if someone
signed a voter application on a Saturday, she counted that as the day
the person registered even if the registration form was not turned in
until the following Monday.

"There are exceptions if the signature date is months or even weeks
prior" to the receipt of the registration form, she added.