Judge blocks harassment of petition group

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Friday, June 4, 2004 | 9:21 a.m.

District Judge Kenneth Cory on Thursday ordered several state agencies to not harass or restrict people who are attempting to gather signatures to get two referendums on the Nov. 2 ballot.

Cory stopped short of granting Nevadans for Sound Government's request for an extension of the deadline for submission and verification of the petitions, however.

Cory issued the order against the state Department of Motor Vehicles, University and Community College System, Regional Transit Authority of Reno and County Clerks of Nevada saying some of their actions had violated essential First Amendment Constitutional rights of petitioners.

"The temporary restraining order doesn't really go very far," Cory said. "It doesn't infringe on the agencies. It gives petitioners the rights they are all afforded under the constitution. You cannot demoralize these individuals (petitioners) for trying to exercise their constitutional rights, because eventually they may give up."

The order requires that the officer in charge of a given state building must have a "document or map with textual indications of the area petitioners may use to petition." The document must be presented to "all groups" to make it clear all petitioners from all groups are being treated equally, Cory said.

As for the request that the deadlines be extended, Cory scheduled a preliminary injunction hearing for June 11, saying he would need a "better record of the skirmishes" that Nevadans for Sound Government alleges its petitioners were involved in during their attempts to gather signatures.

Nevadans for Sound Government's attorney, Joel Hansen, said he would call witnesses and provide more detailed evidence as to the alleged harassment he claims some state agencies have committed against petitioners.

Nevadans for Sound Government is seeking a referendum to repeal last year's $833 million tax increase and another to stop government workers from serving in the Legislature.

The deadline for signatures for the tax referendum passed on May 18. The group fell about 6,500 signatures short of the required number for the tax repeal.

The deadline for the referendum seeking to prevent government employees from serving in the Legislature is on June 15, and proponents need 51,134 signatures of registered voters, but that total must include 10 percent of the voters in 13 of the 17 counties signing the initiative to qualify it for the ballot.

Hansen argued that by being prevented from gathering signatures at the DMV and on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus on several occasions the group had been prevented from attaining the required number of signatures.

Hansen said there is only one acceptable form of relief for the harassment that has taken place.

"How do you spell relief?" Hansen asked. "Well, we want to be on the ballot."

Deputy Attorney General Kimberly Buchanan, representing the DMV, and Bart Patterson, representing the University and Community College System, said they have already accommodated the petitioners.

Buchanan admitted that some petitioners had been told to leave DMV's offices, but only because the guards working hadn't received notice from Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller that letters of authorization were no longer needed to petition on government property.

Patterson said the UNLV campus has informed petitioners that "free speech zones" existed throughout university's grounds and that petitioners were only asked to relocate when they were not in those "designated areas."

Attorneys representing the state agencies argued that the issue of granting extensions was really a "question of feasibility."

Clark County Counsel Mary-Anne Miller said the deadlines in place are there for a reason, namely to make sure all ballots for all counties in Nevada and absentee voters are ready in time to ensure every voter has the same opportunity to vote come November.

Hansen argued the process could be sped up, if the clerks simply prepared a space on the ballot for the measure in advance. Miller said while that could be done, there would be other problems because the issues would need to be translated into Spanish and officials would have to make sure absentee and early voters had access to ballots.

Hansen said the inconvenience of working harder to get the issue on the ballot is outweighed by the restrictions that have been placed on the constitutional rights of Nevadans.

"This is about liberty, democracy and the defending of what it is to be an American," Hansen said. "We have to prove we are more than slaves of the government. We need to prove we are free citizens."