OFFICIALS PUT MORE QUESTIONS ON BALLOT

In line with a court order, Nevada's secretary of state declared
Wednesday that proposals to raise Nevada's hourly minimum wage and
block frivolous lawsuits have qualified for the November ballot.

Dean Heller said he recalculated the signature count for both
proposals following Carson City District Judge Bill Maddox' ruling
Tuesday and determined they easily met a requirement for a minimum of
51,337 signatures.

Recount

The proposal to raise the minimum wage by $1, to $6.15 an hour, gained
10,499 more signatures for a total of 59,718. The frivolous lawsuits
proposal picked up 8,025 signatures for a total of 57,617.

A petition to ease Nevada's marijuana laws wasn't part of the case
before Maddox. Even if it had been, Heller said it still would have
fallen short of the minimum signature count by 1,249 names. That
proposal also didn't meet a requirement to have signatures equal to 10
percent of the turnout in the 2002 elections in 13 of the state's 17
counties.

Affidavits needed

After a two-hour hearing, Maddox ordered the minimum wage and
frivolous lawsuit proposals onto the ballot, saying, "We should favor
the people of the state of Nevada expressing their opinions."

The secretary of state's office had said petitioners had turned in
what appeared to be more than enough names -- but some of the
petitions lacked an affidavit from a petition signer, attesting that
other signatures were those of registered voters. Petition gatherers
also sign an affidavit that says the signatures are valid.

"The 'boy, is that stupid' test applies here," Maddox said, adding
that would be the reaction of a petition signer when asked to sign
another document attesting that other signatures of total strangers
also were valid.

Maddox said the person stating the other signatures were those of
registered Nevada voters would have to take the petition circulator's
word for it or stand around for hours witnessing each of the signatures.

The judge said the double-signature requirement that's in the Nevada
Constitution clashes with a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision on ballot
proposals.

Reno lobbyist Sam McMullen, representing the Las Vegas Chamber of
Commerce, said an appeal to the state Supreme Court is likely. Renee
Parker, chief deputy secretary of state, said her office wouldn't
initiate an appeal, but probably would support a petition to overturn
Maddox' decision.

Two other petitions, to scrap the $833 million tax increase approved
by lawmakers last year and to bar public employees from holding
elective office, are still going through a signature verification process.