Suit targets Nevada electoral votes

Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2000 | 11:11 a.m.

Secretary of State Dean Heller said Monday Nevada's presidential electors will meet Dec. 18 at 2 p.m. in the old Supreme Court chambers in the state Capitol to cast the state's four electoral votes.

All electors nationwide cast their ballots the same day.

Nevada's GOP electors are Margaret Peggy Wutke and former Assemblywoman Jane Ham, both of Las Vegas, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio and Trudy Hushbeck, both of Reno.

Gov. George W. Bush carried Nevada with 301,539 votes to 279,949 for Vice President Al Gore.

The law binds the electors to vote only for the winner in Nevada, Heller said.

Meanwhile Reno lawyer Carter King said he would file a federal lawsuit today challenging the way Nevada's four electoral votes are distributed.

King says Nevada's "winner-take-all" system violates equal protection measures in the U.S. Constitution.

King said the suit, to be filed in U.S. District Court in Reno, will seek a restraining order preventing Nevada's electors from casting all of their votes for Bush when they meet.

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