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LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA: Error puts initiative in jeopardy
By ERIN NEFF | REVIEW-JOURNAL | June 24, 2004

Leader of petition drive urges acceptance of forgotten signatures

An initiative seeking to legalize possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana in Nevada could go up in smoke.

Petition organizers last week announced that they had submitted sufficient signatures to qualify the petition for the November ballot.

However, Billy Rogers, president of the political consulting firm seeking to qualify the petition, subsequently discovered a box of about 6,000 signatures that no one remembered to turn in.

Clark County Registrar Larry Lomax said Rogers contacted him by phone Saturday asking whether he could turn in the box, which contains signatures that were notarized before the June 15 deadline to submit initiative petitions.

"He was pleading with me that they forgot to turn it in," Lomax said. "Unfortunately, the state law says they have to turn it all in by June 15."

The oversight does not necessarily spell doom for the petition, but the mistake dramatically narrows the petition's margin for error.

The Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana must qualify in 13 of the state's 17 counties to secure a spot on the November statewide ballot.

Each county requires a specific number of valid signatures.

Officials did a raw count and determined that marijuana petition organizers filed a sufficient number of signatures in 14 counties. However, officials must determine how many of those signatures are valid.

"The record shows that, as a general rule, 70 percent of the signatures turn out to be valid," said Steve George, spokesman for the secretary of state's office. "The rest turn out to be duplicates or people who aren't registered or people who aren't registered in that county."

In Clark County, organizers submitted about 35,000 signatures in support of the marijuana petition. The minimum number of valid signatures required to qualify for the November ballot is 31,360.

If the petition fails to qualify in Clark County, it would have to pass muster in each of the other 13 counties validating signatures.

"They're pretty close in several other counties, and they're really cutting it close," said Renee Parker, chief deputy secretary of state.

Jennifer Knight, spokeswoman for the Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana, deferred questions to Rogers.

Rogers would not comment Wednesday.

On Monday, he sent Lomax a letter saying the signatures that organizers forgot to submit were notarized properly before the June 15 deadline, even though they were not discovered until Saturday.

"Your refusal to accept signatures gathered prior to June 15, 2004, may disenfranchise voters who signed the petition prior to June 15, 2004," Rogers wrote. "It is our position that a remedy exists during the raw count stage of the petition drive and during the verification stage to accept the signatures and ensure that all who signed the petitions are covered."

Rogers said the petitions in question are being stored in the law offices of Ross Goodman, a son of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman. Ross Goodman was not available for comment Wednesday.

Rogers, who runs the Southwest Group, has said his petition drives have a higher-than-average success rate because his paid petition gatherers stress the accuracy of the signatures at the street level.

Rogers works for the Marijuana Policy Project, which is based in Washington, D.C. The group lobbies state legislatures on issues such as medical marijuana and marijuana legalization.

A spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project said he was aware of the situation with the ballot qualification process in Nevada, but he referred questions to Rogers.

"I don't have any relevant details," Bruce Mirken said. "It's something obviously that we're interested in."

Nevada is still hyped nationally as being the first state with good potential to legalize marijuana, in part because of the state's liberal initiative petition laws and also because voters already have approved the use of marijuana for medical reasons.

However, voters in 2002 overwhelmingly defeated an effort to legalize up to 3 ounces of marijuana. The vote was 61 to 39 percent.

This year's petition seeks to amend the Nevada Constitution to legalize possession of 1 ounce of marijuana sold, licensed and regulated by the state. It also increases penalties for driving under the influence of a controlled substance and for selling marijuana to minors.

If it qualifies for the ballot, voters would have to approve it in November and again in 2006 before it could take effect.

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"I believe in the near future, the government will use anti-drug hysteria to set up a police state."
-author William S. Burroughs, 1947

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Cassius

If the signatures were notarized before the deadline, I think they should be accepted. After all, that is the point of having them notarized, isn't it?

cassiusclay

Well you know how bureaucrats are. The letter of the law says all sigs must be turned in by June 15. I think if they are notarized, then the intent of the law would not be broken by letting them be counted, but that might require some compassion

Hiz Highness

Maybe those stoners in Nevada should take their victory tokes after they turn in all the signatures!



-HH

jwdraco

I am not sure how the signatures failed to be submitted. Was this an oversight by someone that was supposed be responsible for it? If the late signatures are accepted that would be great, but they could say rules are rules, and would lay grounds for legislators to imply that {maybe they got stoned and blew it}. If we are going to advocate for the legalization of marijuana we must show responsibility and not reinforce what is already being thought or said by some law making officials. I am all for legalizing marijuana for personal use. Lets be, responsible for our actions and not give them ammo to use against the cause.

 

Dennis

I live in Nevada now and have been following this closely. I'm pretty sure there are still enough signatures for the initiative to be validated. I'll be voting in November and encourage everyone to find out where to register, register by the deadline, find out where your state and federal representatives stand on the issues, and VOTE for your selected representatives and initiatives this November.

I cannot emphasize enough How Very Important It Is That You Do This One Thing!


Dennis

TiKiTiKi

I think that they should totally take the petitions if they are notorized. Having MJ legal in Nevada would be a super - amazing jump for the cause.

Greenbud

MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION INITIATIVE: Judge rejects signatures

Cory says petitioners cannot show a rights violation

By ERIN NEFF | REVIEW-JOURNAL | June 26,2004

A District Court judge ruled Friday that Clark County officials are not obligated to count thousands of petition signatures misplaced by leaders of an initiative to legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.

The decision jeopardizes the initiative's chances of qualifying for the statewide November ballot.

Judge Ken Cory cited another case before his court and the hardships those signature collectors faced in denying the request for a temporary restraining order for the Committee for the Regulation and Control of Marijuana.

"Their rights to gather signatures were infringed," Cory said of the case involving Nevadans for Sound Government, whom he granted an extraordinary extension to the petition deadline. "Whereas in this case, I don't think you can point to any other showing of a violation of rights."

The committee, led by Billy Rogers of the Southwest Group, said it discovered a box containing 6,000 signatures four days after the petition's June 15 deadline for submission.

In the other petition case, Cory said, the plaintiffs successfully argued governmental agencies had impeded their ability to gather signatures.

Rogers' attorney, Ross Goodman, argued a conflict between two state statutes should have permitted the Clark County Election Department to accept the signatures, which had been notarized prior to the June 15 deadline.

He said the Legislature crafted election laws with the mandate they be "interpreted liberally" to benefit the will of the electorate.

"Through inadvertent and excusable neglect, they were found after the deadline," Goodman said, referring to the 6,000 signatures stacked in front of Rogers at the plaintiff's table.

But Clark County counsel Mary-Anne Miller argued the statute specifying a June 15 deadline "isn't something the Legislature just made up." She also said Goodman hadn't proven his case could succeed on the merits of the petition filed in court.

"They would have to establish a due process right to a second chance, a do-over, a mulligan, whatever you want to call it," Miller said.

Rogers had sought the restraining order to force the county to accept the 6,000 signatures during the signature verification process currently under way and expected to be finished by July 2.

Without the 6,000 signatures, his petition faces a real danger of not qualifying for the November ballot. The committee turned in 35,000 signatures in Clark County, more than the 31,360 required. However, most petitions lose 30 percent of their signatures during the verification process. For a signature to be valid, it must be that of a registered voter in that county.

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 Goodman each said Friday they did not know whether they would seek an emergency injunction in District Court, something Cory advised Friday would be an option for them.

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

Suetaz

Does anyone know anything about the verification process? How do they verify signatures? How much effort do they put into verifying the signatures? I'm just wondering if they call people to verify their signature. Do they call during the day when people are at work and if they don't get an answer, too bad? Is there still hope for this?

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