Court asked to order Neal-Clinton runoff

Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2000 | 11:11 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Independent American Party has asked the state Supreme Court to order a runoff in the general election between state Sen. Joe Neal and challenger Uri Clinton.

No general election is planned for Neal's seat because he won the primary election by a large enough margin to avoid a runoff in the race that drew only Democrats.

The suit, filed by Las Vegas lawyer Joel Hansen, says the law disenfranchises all non-Democrats. It's unconstitutional, Hansen said, because it "deprives the vast majority of voters in Senatorial District 4 of their sacred right to vote on their senator in the general election."

Hansen, state chairman of the Independent American Party, said more than 7,000 voters in the district who won't be able to vote for senator. The district has 15,099 Democrats.

In his Sept. 26 petition, Hansen asked the court to issue an emergency writ to force Clark County Voter Registrar Larry Lomax to put Clinton's name on the ballot.

A bill was proposed in the 1999 Legislature to change the law to force a runoff between the top two vote-getters in such elections, but it was defeated.

Assemblywoman Marcia de Braga, D-Fallon, has asked for a bill similar to the one introduced by Assemblywoman Dawn Gibbons, R-Reno, last session.

De Braga cited a case in Churchill County in which three Republicans ran for county commissioner and one received 54 percent of the vote in the primary election and was automatically elected.

The law, de Braga said, "disenfranchises a lot of people" in other parties who do not get to vote in the primary election.

She said the Gibbons bill passed the Assembly in the last session but "fell into a black hole in the Senate."

Neal was declared the winner because Neal, Clinton and Christopher Montanez, all Democrats, were the only candidates to file for the seat Neal has held since 1972.