Guinn recall leaders call DMV action illegal

Monday, Sept. 15, 2003 | 10:54 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The committee organizing a drive to recall Gov. Kenny Guinn says its efforts to gather signatures has been illegally blocked by the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

The Recall Guinn Committee has asked Secretary of State Dean Heller to find the DMV in violation of the law for allegedly refusing to allow signatures to be obtained at two sites in Southern Nevada.

Renee Parker, chief deputy secretary of state, said an investigation is being made to determine the facts and a decision hopefully will be made by Tuesday.

Christopher Hansen, vice chairman of the recall group, lodged the complaint Friday, saying his group has been blocked at the DMV offices on East Sahara Avenue in Las Vegas and in Henderson. The law, he said, permits the group to gather signatures at these offices.

"Since this is a recall of a sitting governor, all actions by the government that interfere with our success may appear to be intentional acts to inhibit our ability to succeed," he said.

Sandy Harmon, spokesman for the recall effort, said he did not know how many of the required 128,000 signatures have been obtained. The group hopes to collect 200,000 by the Nov. 25 deadline, he said.

DMV Director Ginny Lewis told recall officials a designated area would be set aside outside the offices to the side of the front doors. She said she did not want the recall effort to be stationed inside offices because it would impede the customer flow.

Hansen, in his complaint, said six volunteers showed up Sept. 8 at the East Sahara Avenue office and were told that they would have to obtain a permit from the secretary of state's office and were denied use of the DMV property. He said the Nevada Highway Patrol was summoned and the group was threatened with arrest.

He said on Sept. 11 the group was ordered off the property of the Henderson office.

"We do not feel that it is 'reasonable' to have the designated area which may, by law be 'inside or outside the building' to be only outside in an area with no shade and no shelter from the weather," Hansen said. He said there are handicapped and elderly citizens gathering signatures and "some of these people cannot remain in direct sun or in extreme temperatures."

Hansen said if Heller's office fails to act, he will take other legal action.

Parker said Ronda Moore, deputy secretary of state for elections, is in Las Vegas today to investigate what happened.

Hansen said he wants the officer in charge of the East Sahara office charged with a felony because it is illegal to turn the petitioners away from the property. He also said he wants Heller's office to adopt regulations to clarify that groups can have space to gather names.

He said that Heller's office has been after the Hansen family for alleged violations of the election laws in filing campaign expense reports. He said he wants to see if Heller will apply the law equally.