Advisory issues could be off ballot

Adrienne Packer

Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2002 | 11:04 a.m.

A District Court ruling on whether Clark County possessed the authority to place two smoking-related advisory questions on November's ballot could determine the fate of a slate of planned questions.

County administrators were scheduled to meet this morning to explore the legal arguments of five advisory questions planned for the Nov. 5 general election.

In its petition delivered to the Clark County district attorney's office Tuesday, the Nevada Retail Gaming Association claims the county had no authority to approve the ballot questions because the state regulates smoking.

"In resolving to place these advisory questions on the ballot, the commission acted well outside of the limited authority the Legislature delegated to local governing bodies to submit advisory questions to local voters," the complaint says.

District Court Judge Mark Denton is expected to consider the new challenge during a 9 a.m. hearing Monday.

The retail association filed the same petition in Nevada Supreme Court last month. On Thursday the court ruled its intervention in that and a similar challenge to a question on power delivery was not warranted.

Acting on the same premise as the Retail Gaming Association, Nevada Power had tried to remove an advisory question asking voters whether they wanted a publicly operated power company.

The same law firm that represented Nevada Power was hired by the Retail Gaming Association. The language in both complaints are essentially verbatim, and county attorneys believe they will continue to be successful in their defense.

"If the court says you can't ask the advice of voters on what position to take at the Legislature, it affects all questions," Deputy District Attorney Mary-Anne Miller said. "It's important to note that I don't think that is valid. We can do this under Nevada statute."

The other questions include a one-cent property tax increase to help fund homeless programs and a quarter-cent sales tax hike to be imposed for 25 years to improve Southern Nevada's roads.

Two smoking-related questions are planned.

One question asks whether the county Health District should be given the authority to adopt stronger smoking regulations than state laws provide. The second asks whether the state should ban smoking in public places such as schools, grocery stores, restaurants and government buildings.

The printing of general election ballots, expected to start this week, will be delayed briefly until a ruling is made.

Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell said the filing of the petitions is untimely.

When when the county fought Nevada Power in Supreme Court, attorneys told the judge the "drop-dead deadline" for ballot changes was Sept. 10. The state's high court denied that petition well before the deadline.

"We start early voting in three to four weeks," Bell said. "We can't make changes now. We will come in and represent the election department and we will say, 'A, this isn't Judge Denton's business and B, it's too late.' "

Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said this morning that he planned to have the ballots printed this week. Absentee out-of-state ballots must be mailed to voters 40 days before the election.

"If they make a decision Monday I think we can catch up and we'll be all right," Lomax said. "I'm going to hold off printing this week; if we guess which way the courts go, it could be pretty expensive."

Lomax said the ballots might simply be late if no decision is made Monday.

"Let's just wait and see what happens," he said. "We'll make our decision Monday."

The challenge was filed late Monday afternoon but the district attorney's office was unaware of the petition until Tuesday. No mention of the challenge was made during Clark County commissioners' special meeting held Tuesday to canvass the returns of the Sept. 3 primary election.

Sun reporter Kim Smith contributed to this story.