POT RULING OPENS DOOR FOR OTHER INITIATIVES

Clerks Rush to Verify Signatures on Four Other Petitions

Now that a federal judge has opened the door for the marijuana
initiative petition to possibly be placed on the November ballot,
county clerks are scrambling to verify signatures on four petitions
that could be affected by the ruling.

Political observers say the decision will have a long-term effect,
too, making it easier and cheaper to get petitions on the Nevada ballot.

"You're going to see more initiatives on the ballot," said Democratic
political consultant Dan Hart. "You're going to see people who would
normally spend money lobbying the legislature spend money putting
petitions on the ballot because it will be cheaper."

On Friday, U.S. District Judge James Mahan found the state's
"13-county" rule unconstitutional. The rule requires petition
circulators to obtain signatures of 10 percent of the people who voted
in the last election in at least 13 of the state's 17 counties.

The requirement has made signature gathering expensive in Nevada
because it's more difficult to gather signatures in rural counties
than in populous Clark County.

Mahan also ruled invalid a requirement that a person in addition to
the circulator must sign an affidavit verifying the signatures.

Four petitions could be affected by Friday's ruling.

The marijuana petition, supported by the Committee to Regulate and
Control Marijuana, asks voters to make it legal for adults to have an
ounce of marijuana.

Another petition aims to penalize attorneys who file frivolous
lawsuits. Another would raise the minimum wage, and a fourth would ban
public employees from serving in the legislature.

The signatures on those petitions will be recounted.

The state constitution had required that signatures be gathered from
rural counties so that large counties, such as Clark County, could not
get items on the ballot without some support from throughout the
state, said Senior Deputy Attorney General Victoria Oldenburg.

Matthew Brinckerhoff, lead attorney for the group supporting the
marijuana petition, argued that the rule gives more weight to
signatures from rural counties than from Clark County.

Clark County had 313,605 voters in the last election, meaning that the
petition would need 31,360 of those voters signatures to qualify in
Clark County.

In contrast Esmeralda County had only 454 voters in the last election,
meaning only 45 signatures are needed to qualify there.

Fred Lokken, a political science professor at Truckee Meadows
Community College, said the requirement goes back to a basic
democratic principle in the United States -- to protect minority voices.

Just as the electoral college gives importance in presidential
campaigns to small population states such as Nevada, the requirement
to gather signatures in rural counties gave a voice to rural voters in
Nevada, Lokken said.

"There has been a logic for it, which is that anything that's a state
issue should be reflective of a state issue," he said. "You don't want
a population center to be able to force the state issues."

Gail Tuzzolo, who helped gather signatures on the frivolous lawsuit
and minimum wage petitions, has circulated petitions for two decades.
She said she saw merit in requiring signatures to come from rural
counties, even though she agreed with Friday's ruling.

"I liked the county requirement," she said. "I felt that it gave you a
chance to go out and talk to rural voters. I think that's important.
It gives a representation of the whole state, which I think in Nevada
is important."

Tuzzolo said she and her volunteers have already laid groundwork for
their petition in rural counties because they circulated petitions
there.

There are two sides of the issue, said political consultant Jim
Denton.

"My personal opinion is that everyone ought to have an opportunity to
participate in the political process, not just urban areas," Denton
said. "The other side is that the cost of getting these petitions
signed and having to pay the expenses of going all over the state is
not cheap."

Denton helped circulate the Education First petition, which has made
the ballot. It would require the legislature to pass the education
budget before any other appropriations.

It cost almost $150,000 to get the measure on the ballot, largely
because of the rural requirements, Denton said.

In his decision, Mahan cited a recent ruling in the U.S. 9th Circuit
Court of Appeals that struck down a law in Idaho requiring that
signatures be gathered from six percent of the qualified voters in at
least half of the state's counties.

Mahan also said the requirement that a person in addition to the
circulator must sign an affidavit verifying the signatures are valid.
The second affidavit, he said, was unnecessary. Only the circulator
could verify the signatures are valid, Mahan said.

Mahan did not rule that the article in the Nevada constitution that
addresses the dual affidavit issue was unconstitutional, saying that
the article itself is up to interpretation.

Oldenburg said that the article would likely be taken up by the Nevada
Supreme Court during a hearing into the dual affidavit issue scheduled
for Aug. 31.

Mahan denied a claim in the lawsuit, filed by the Committee to
Regulate and Control Marijuana and the American Civil Liberties Union
of Nevada, that called into question whether someone who signs a
petition can register to vote after signing.

That question will be appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, Brinkerhoff said.

Jennifer Knight, a spokeswoman for the Committee to Regulate and
Control Marijuana, said that Mahan's ruling gives her campaign hope.

"The state has been preventing us from getting this on the ballot, but
today we got a fair ruling," Knight said. "Hopefully once the
signatures are verified we'll have pulled enough signatures to get on
the ballot."

Gary Peck, Executive Director of the ACLU of Nevada, said he was
pleased with the judge's ruling on the "13-county rule" and the dual
affidavit question, but disagreed with the judge on the issue of
people registering to vote at the same time or shortly after signing a
petition.

"Principally the ACLU is concerned with the integrity and fairness of
the process," Peck said. "We want to make sure no eligible voter is
denied the opportunity to be heard."

Organizers of the petitions have lost traditional campaigning time
because of these court proceedings, but Hart said that most local
campaigns already are holding off with campaigning until the last minute.

"This is a very expensive year for campaigns in Nevada because you've
got so much attention on the national level here," Hart said. "You've
got the national campaigns buying TV and sort of dominating the
political message. To be able to cut through that is going to be an
expensive process for anybody."

"You'll see them campaigning for a shorter time but spending the same
amount of money," he said.

Secretary of State Dean Heller will give registrars 12 days from the
time he enters an order to recount 100 percent of the signatures filed
in their counties on the four petitions.

Registrars already were verifying 100 percent of the "Axe the Tax"
petition, which would roll back an $833 million tax increase passed
last year.

"I can tell you all the counties are not going to be able to do this
(in 12 days)," Lomax said. "I don't know how we're going to do it
here. We just hired 16 temporary workers to help with the counting on
the 'Axe the Tax' petition and now we have more to do.

"I don't have computers for more workers to sit at, and I don't have
any time except from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. or on the weekends," Lomax said.

Washoe County Registrar Dan Burk said his department already was busy
grappling with the new voting machines to be used this year, and he
cannot hire more temporary workers to check signatures because he,
like Lomax, has run out of computers for them to use.

"The decision just makes it really impossible for us to administer
these elections that are upcoming in a way that demonstrates integrity
to the voters," Burk said.

Nye County Clerk Sandra Merlino, who oversees a staff of five court
and commission clerks, said her small county has few workers. She will
have to pay overtime and re-assign staff members to help verify the
signatures, leaving other Nye County departments understaffed.

She said she was "disappointed" in the court's decision but was
confident the county would be able to recount the petitions.

"I knew it could happen," Merlino said. "My office will do whatever it
takes to get it done even if it means we're staying until 9 or 10 at
night to do it."