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Vegas judge refuses to tally forgotten marijuana signatures
Las Vegas Sun | June 26, 2004 at 15:47:04 PDT | ASSOCIATED PRESS

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.


[zombienote: Accident? Yeah, right. See: Legalization Hits Potential Snag ]

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