INITIATIVE RULES

Secretary of State Dean Heller warns three more initiatives may be
tossed off November's ballot due to arcane regulations concerning
petition signatures.

At risk are campaigns to have voters decide whether possession of an
ounce or less of marijuana should be legalized, whether insurance
rates shall be rolled back 20 percent, and whether limitations on
attorney fees should be prohibited.

The problem, according to Mr. Heller, is that on many petition pages,
circulators failed to have a "document signer" -- someone who signed
the petition -- also sign an affidavit asserting that others who
signed the petition are registered voters.

That step is required by Nevada law if the petition passer is not a
registered voter. Different procedures apply if the petition
circulator is a registered voter.

But why? How would someone seeking signatures out on the sidewalk
really know if signers are registered to vote? Don't they just take
the signer's word? In which case, of what real use is their
"affidavit"? Isn't this why signatures are spot-checked for validity
rates? If there's no penalty for signing an affidavit when it turns
out a single signature is invalid, why go through all the rigmarole?

Some minimal safeguards must be retained to avoid fraud and to make
sure voters' time (and public funds) aren't wasted on proposals that
haven't met a minimal preliminary test of public support. But the next
Legislature needs to simplify petition rules, eliminating arcane and
obscure requirements.

The petition rules should be simple, straightforward, and easy to
follow.