Initiative petitions move to signature verification stage

Tuesday, June 22, 2004 | 9:44 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Secretary of State Dean Heller says the six initiative petitions dealing with such things as marijuana, the minimum wage and reducing insurance premiums, have cleared the first hurdle.

Heller said Monday they have received a sufficient number of raw signatures in the required counties to move on to the next step.

He has ordered the county clerks or registrars of voters to begin examining the signatures to verify there are no duplicates or signatures of non-registered voters. The local officials have nine working days to complete the process.

To qualify for the November ballot, 51,337 signatures were required and 10 percent of the voters in 13 of the 17 counties had to sign the petition to amend the Nevada Constitution.

The proposal by Nevada schoolteachers to push state funding of education up to the national average by 2012 got the most signatures, 96,998. It qualified in 16 counties, falling short only in Elko County.

Education First, which would require the Legislature to pass the school aid budget first, gained 83,046 signatures and met the requirement in 14 counties. It did not meet the test in Douglas, Elko and Nye counties.

The petition to allow adults to possess up to one ounce of marijuana had 66,135 signatures and met the requirement in 14 counties. It failed in Douglas, Esmeralda and Eureka counties.

The petition to stop frivolous lawsuits and to allow victims in civil suits to recover their full awards gathered 72,723 signatures and qualified in 14 counties. It did not get the required signatures in Carson City and Douglas and Esmeralda counties.

A plan to roll back insurance rates by 20 percent gained 75,195 signatures and met the requirement in 14 counties. It fell short in Carson City and Douglas and Esmeralda counties.

The Nevada State AFL-CIO and its associates gathered 76,887 signatures on a petition to raise the minimum wage $1 over the federal $5.15. It qualified in 14 counties, missing out in Douglas, Carson City and Esmeralda.

Two additional petitions -- one to repeal the $833 million tax increase and the other to prohibit government workers from serving in the Legislature -- were granted an extension by a district judge until July 20 to gather the signatures.

The county clerks or voter registrars will now start their verification process. A person who submitted the petition or a member of the petitioner's committee is allowed to witness the signature verification.

The report by the secretary of state's office showed Douglas County was the most difficult place to gather signatures. The only petition to qualify in that county was the one to push school funding to the national average.