Tax petition axed after a recount

Friday, Aug. 27, 2004 | 11:23 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The petition to repeal the $833.5 million tax increase has failed in a second count to have enough signatures to qualify for the November election ballot.

Secretary of State Dean Heller said today the recount of the registered voters totaled 46,789 on the referendum petition, short of the 51,337 required.

Nevadans for Sound Government turned in more than 60,000 signatures. The first count, done by sampling the signatures where there are more than 500, estimated there would be 49,200 valid signatures.

Heller on Aug. 10 ordered all the signatures to be verified rather than relying on the sampling.

That won't stop a hearing set for Monday in District Court in Carson City to disqualify the petition. The Nevada Taxpayers Association filed the lawsuit, claiming the petition is defective.

The taxpayers association says the referendum cites only the numbers of the laws to be repealed, rather than carrying the language of the laws so voters could tell what they were signing.

Carole Vilardo, executive director of the taxpayers association, said she was happy that the petition did not have the required signatures.

"I would hope this would be the end of it," Vilardo said. Noting the court hearing was still on for Monday, she added, "There are substantial constitutional issues that still have to be decided."

George Harris, head of Nevadans For Sound Government, which circulated the petition, replied, "We're going to win that because they (the taxpayers association) doesn't have standing" to bring the suit.

The number of signatures fell by more than 1,500 in Clark County between the sample and the verified count. The sampling estimated there would be 34,900 verified signatures in Clark County but, once verified, the petitions had only 33,279.

Harris said the petition failed on the recount because Clark County Voter Registrar Larry Lomax tossed out "thousand of signatures" of legally registered voters -- an allegation Lomax denies.

Harris said the organization will join with the supporters of the marijuana petition in a case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to put both issues on the ballot.

Joel Hansen, attorney for Nevadans for Sound Government, said he believes that 4,500 signatures of registered voters were not counted in Clark County. He said the people who circulated the petition also got people to register to vote at the same time. The petitions and the voter registrations were submitted at the same time, Hansen said. But those names were not counted.

He said a "friend of the court" document will be filed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the backers of the marijuana petition, who also are challenging the disqualification of signatures from newly registered voters.

Nevadans For Sound Government sued initially when it failed to make the first deadline of June 15 for turning in the signatures. They claimed they were harassed and blocked from gathering signatures on public property, such as at the state Department of Motor Vehicles, UNLV and the municipal bus station in Reno.

Janine Hansen, one of the leaders in the drive, and her son were arrested for trespassing at the bus station in Reno for trying to gather signatures. But the charges were later dropped.

District Judge Ken Cory of Las Vegas granted the organization an additional 35 days to circulate the petition after hearing the complaints about harassment.