Las Vegas Sun

November 16, 2009

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Letter: Stop outright lies to voters

Friday, Sept. 20, 2002 | 9:08 a.m.

As the Sun wrote in its Sept. 17 editorial, free speech should apply to campaigns.

But there has to be some recourse to outright lies other than the courts.

At the most recent election, there was an item on the ballot here in Boulder City that proposed an amendment to our charter.

The ballot question would have required voter approval if the City Council proposed to lease more than one acre of city-owned land for longer than 10 years.

The arguments against, included with the sample ballot -- and prepared by the city attorney -- and post cards, proposing a no vote and mailed to all the voters, both contained statements that are not true.

In this instance, and in many others when intentional lies are used to mislead the voters, those using this tactic know that it is very unlikely that they will be challenged in the courts because of the cost and time required.

There has to be some remedy that is available to all.

BILL SMITH

Editor's note: The writer is a former city councilman from Boulder City.

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