Heller says Gates case will spur recall changes

Jeff Schweers

Friday, June 12, 1998 | 11:13 a.m.

A state investigation of a random sample used to reject a recall effort against Clark County Commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates will likely lead to changes in how petitions are qualified.

A full verification of the 7,480 signatures submitted by Citizens for Honest and Responsible Government backed up the random sample on which Secretary of State Dean Heller based his May 8 decision to fail the petition.

In both cases, the verification process failed to generate close to the amount needed to trigger a special election.

Heller said his investigation uncovered loopholes in the state election law outlining the method for legitimizing petitions. He said he will work with local election officials on bills to introduce to the 1999 Legislature, and even issue emergency guidelines to close up some of the loopholes.

"We need to clarify the vagueness in the recall process," Heller said. "One was withdrawals. What do you do with people who ask to be removed? That's one of the biggest queastions we've had to deal with."

Heller said the issue was raised when Clark County Registrar of Voters Kathryn Ferguson asked what to do with 58 people who had requested their names be removed from the petition to recall Gates.

Removing the signatures changed the total number of valid signatures to 3,582 -- 798 signatures short of the number needed to trigger a recall and within a quarter of 1 percent of the original random sample.

Heller said he has given the results to two UNLV statistics professors for further analysis of how closely the random sample matched the full signature check.

"We're trying to reduce bias, increase objectivity," Heller said. "That's what this has been about."

And if any of Heller's decisions wind up in court, he said, "we'll have expert witnesses who say this is valid."

Heller had called for the full verification after Citizens for Honest and Responsible Government challenged his decision -- a first since a 1993 law was created allowing petitioners to appeal the outcome of random samples.

A group trying to recall North Las Vegas Councilwoman Paula Brown followed with an appeal of its own after Heller rejected its petition. That group, Citizens for Higher Ethics in Government, charged that five signatures discounted because they were illegible should be included as valid.

Heller said his office will continue to investigate the Brown petition, but the results of the Gates verification shows that the sample could be used accurately in that instance.

"I'm not saying the Paula Brown appeal is closed," he said. "My office will continue to investigate. It just might not be necessary to break it down in that way."

SUN REPORTER Denise Cardinal contributed to this story.