JUDGE TOSSES MULTI-COUNTY REQUIREMENT FOR PETITIONS

Federal Judge James Mahan turned Nevada's initiative petition law on
its head Friday, striking down the state constitutional requirement
that petitioners gather 10 percent of last election's turnout in at
least 13 counties to put a question on the state ballot.

The judge ruled the state could only require a certain minimum number
of signatures -10 percent of the turnout in the last general election
- - but could not add geographical and other requirements.

The marijuana petition, an initiative to legalize up to one ounce of
marijuana, was tossed off the ballot because it qualified in only 12
counties and fell 249 votes shy of the 51,337 total number of
signatures needed. Ronda Moore, elections deputy for Secretary of
State Dean Heller, said without the 13-county requirement, another
Nevada law comes into play requiring county election officials to
verify every petition signature instead of relying on a 5 percent sample.

Clerks can sample 5 percent of the signers to estimate how many valid
signatures are on a petition but a full count is mandated if that
sample estimates total signers at more than 90 percent of the
requirement and there are no other problems.

She said the secretary of state's office has advised clerks to begin
counting all the signatures immediately. It will make the ballot if
clerks find 249 additional valid names.

Moore said the marijuana petition isn't the only one affected by the
ruling. She said the petition to bar all public employees from serving
in the Legislature also got more than 90 percent of the total needed
but didn't make it in 13 counties.

"Even though the district court order did not address the public
employees petition, it falls in the same category so we're directing
the clerks to examine all those signatures as well," she said.

Moore said with elections fast approaching, the decision puts
tremendous pressure on the overworked staffs of Nevada's county
election officials.

With limited manpower, she said she isn't certain some of them will be
able to verify all the names on those two petitions as well as the
"Axe the Tax" petition, which Heller's office has already ordered a
full count on.

Carson City Clerk-Recorder Alan Glover agreed Friday saying he and the
other 16 Nevada clerks don't think they will be able to finish the
count by the deadline. Glover is head of the county clerks
association.

Mahan's decision was based on a ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals in San Francisco which upheld an Idaho federal judge's
decision in a similar situation. Idaho too had a geographic
requirement in addition to mandating a total number of signatures to
put a ballot question before voters.

Matthew Brinckerhoff, a lawyer representing the two marijuana advocacy
groups, said there was "a decent likelihood" of qualifying the
initiative to let Nevada adults possess and use one ounce of marijuana.