WEEDING OUT SIGNATURES

Comedian George Carlin joked in one of his nightclub routines that the
reason marijuana had never been legalized was that tokers could never
remember where they put the petitions.

Life imitated art this month, when supporters of a marijuana
legalization initiative petition in Nevada neglected to turn in 6,000
of the Clark County signatures they'd gathered. The campaign said the
error resulted from a box of petitions that disappeared and then
somehow turned up again.

The blunder may not torpedo the proposed ballot measure, but it
reduces the cushion of signatures needed to win ballot status.
Initiative petitions can only be signed by registered voters. In
Nevada, with its rapid population turnover, there is often a high rate
of invalid signatures, so campaigns gather many more signatures than
required to provide a cushion.

Because signatures are checked by the local voter registrars and
county clerks, the petitions are submitted to the 17 local voter
registration offices, not to the state Elections Office. So campaigns
end up depending on 17 different people or groups to turn in the signatures.

The reaction to the fiasco from supporters of the petition was a
mixture of laughter and tears.

"I heard about it in my car and couldn't help laughing," said one Reno
backer, who also said she is also upset because the misstep plays into
stereotypes of marijuana smokers.

A state court judge rejected an attempt to file the 6,000 signatures
after the filing deadline.

Campaign spokesperson Billy Rogers of Las Vegas said he believes the
petition drive will still qualify for the ballot.

"I think our chances are pretty good. We're solid in 13 counties. Our
Reno numbers are very good."

He disputed a newspaper report that the margin of signatures turned in
to Elko and Lyon counties was thin. "We already know we've qualified
there. We've verified those signatures ourselves and know we're
qualified in those counties. ... We verified every signature in the
rural counties."

Rogers says the signature gathering in the rural counties outpaced
that for the Gibbons initiative petition that seeks to require the
Nevada Legislature to decide school funding before any other part of
the state budget.

Rogers also said he is certain that the disappearance and reappearance
in his offices of a box of petitions that contained the 6,000
signatures was malicious.

"I don't know if the signatures were misplaced or if someone [lost or]
hid the box, but I do know that someone was acting maliciously.
Someone out there knows what happened to that box for four days, and
they're not saying."