VEGAS JUDGE REFUSES TO TALLY FORGOTTEN MARIJUANA SIGNATURES

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A District Court judge has ruled Clark County
officials are not obligated to count thousands of petition signatures
misplaced by leaders of a drive to legalize small amounts of marijuana.

Friday's decision jeopardizes the initiative's chances of qualifying
for the November election since it reduces the number of signatures
needed for verification and eventual placement on the ballot.

The Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana turned in 35,000
signatures in Clark County, more than the 31,360 required. But most
petitions lose 30 percent of their signatures during the verification
process, which determines whether the signatures belong to registered
voters.

Four days after the petition's June 15 deadline, the committee said it
discovered a box containing 6,000 signatures from Clark County.

Billy Rogers, who heads the committee, had sought a restraining order
to force the county to accept the signatures. But Judge Ken Cory
denied the request after a hearing Friday.

If the petition does not qualify in Clark County, the committee's
petitions would have to qualify in all 13 of the other counties for
which it met a valid number of signatures during the initial raw
count. At least two of those counties, Elko and Lyon, have a very
small margin of error.

Rogers and his lawyer Ross Goodman said Friday they did not know
whether they would seek an emergency injunction in District Court,
something Cory advised might be an option. The verification process is
expected to be completed by July 2.

"By then they'd be done with the count, and the relief we'd be seeking
would be more extraordinary," Goodman said.