Questions arise about Gate recall process

Jeff Schweers

Tuesday, May 12, 1998 | 9:53 a.m.

Questions have been raised about the legality of more than half the signatures collected by a citizens group trying to get County Commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates voted out of office.

County Registrar Kathryn Ferguson said 16 of the circulators responsible for 1,858 of the 7,474 signatures collected for a recall petition were not registered in the district that Gates represents or were registered in another district.

And lawyers for Gates found another 28 circulators responsible for some 1,900 signatures registered in her district after they collected the signatures.

By law, the circulators must be registered in the same district as the official they are trying to recall. But state elections officials said they could not make an interpretation on the ruling.

"That would be for a judge to decide as to whether the entire document would be invalidated or not," Deputy Secretary for Elections Pamela Crowell said. "We do not make that determination."

Crowell said anyone could challenge the sufficiency of a petition through a complaint in District Court. Such a complaint must be filed no later than five working days after a notification of sufficiency is issued and the registrar is directed to issue the call for an election.

The court would then have to set the matter for a hearing no later than 30 days after the complaint is filed. By statute the court must give priority to such a complaint over all matters pending except for criminal cases.

Gates has said she is waiting for the outcome of the verification process to decide whether to challenge the sufficiency of the petitions in court.

Only 4,380 signatures are required to trigger a special recall election -- or 25 percent of the number of people who voted the last time Gates was re-elected, in 1996.

At the time of filing, the elections department received 274 recision cards from people asking their names be taken off the petition.

Citizens for Honest and Responsible Government submitted the 959 pages of signatures last week. The group of North Las Vegans led by lawyer Charles Bennion are upset at Gates for violating the ethics code when she asked casino owners about leasing space for a daiquiri business.

Their effort is financed by Venetian resort owner Sheldon Adelson.

Today, elections officials were to finish checking a random sample of 500 of those signatures to verify their accuracy. If more than 10 percent of the signatures needed for a recall are invalid, the petition will be thrown out.

If 100 percent or more of the signatures necessary for a recall are valid, then Crowell would notify Ferguson that she has 10 to 20 days to call the special election, which must be held no later than 30 days after that notification.

If the number of valid signatures is less than 100 percent or more than 90 percent of the total needed, Crowell said, Ferguson would have 12 working days to check all the signatures until 100 percent of the registered voters needed to trigger a special election are verified.