School district breakup petition hits voter snag

Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2000 | 11:04 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- An initiative petition to break up the Clark County School District may be shy of the required number of qualified signatures.

However, the petition's sponsor, Assemblywoman Sandra Tiffany, R-Henderson, said Monday she's confident the problem with the signatures will be fixed.

Tiffany submitted the signatures of 60,027 persons on the petition, which required 44,009 to qualify, but she ran into a problem with qualified voters in Mineral County.

The petitions had enough signatures in 13 of the 17 state's counties, and in Mineral County, Tiffany submitted 304 signatures and needed only 219. But during an examination to determine if those who signed were registered voters, the petition came up 42 short.

The Mineral County Clerk's office accepted 10 signatures as valid, Tiffany said. The clerk's office would not confirm that and referred all questions to Tiffany. The issue was whether the signatures on the petition belonged to the people who signed.

Tiffany spent last weekend collecting affidavits to verify that the registered voters signed the petition. She said she needed 32 more signatures, and she got 34 affidavits, or two more than needed.

Because the original petition was short, the Mineral County clerk's office will report to Secretary of State Dean Heller that there were not sufficient qualified signatures.

Tiffany then will have five days to file an appeal, and she will submit the 34 affidavits to prove there are sufficient signatures on the petition.

It will be up to Heller to decide if the 34 affidavits are valid.

All counties must report by Thursday if the Tiffany petition is to be qualified.

If Tiffany is successful, the petition will be presented to the 2001 Legislature, which must act on it within 40 days. If the plan is changed or voted down, then it goes on the 2002 election ballot statewide.

Tiffany seeks a change in the state law to allow Clark County schools to be divided into smaller districts.

This proposal has been presented to the Legislature on prior occasions but has always failed. Asked if she thought she would get it through this time, Tiffany replied, "Not as long as Wendell Williams is chairman of the (Assembly) Education Committee."

Williams, a former Clark County schoolteacher, has opposed the petition in the past.

Tiffany gathered 53,168 signatures in Clark County for her petition, and she only needed 25,760.

Clark County school officials have opposed the breakup of the district.