District judge rejects request to accept late signatures

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Monday, June 28, 2004 | 10:57 a.m.

District Judge Kenneth Cory on Friday rejected the arguments posed by both a group requesting the court order the Clark County Registrar to accept 6,000 late signatures in support of an initiative to legalize possession an ounce of marijuana and a group asking for a deadline extension on filing petitions for an initiative to cap property taxes.

Cory ruled the Committee for the Regulation and Control of Marijuana's rights were not infringed because state law requires all petitions for an initiative must be filed at the same time by the June 15 deadline.

Cory essentially found Clark County Registrar Larry Lomax was simply following the law when he refused to accept 6,000 petitions the group wanted to file several days after the deadline had passed.

The group's attorney, Ross Goodman,unsuccessfully argued the Legislature established these laws while providing the guidance they should be "interpreted liberally."

Clark County Counsel Mary-Anne Miller said those laws were not created for interpretation, and essentially in the end deadlines musty be met unless a state agency impeded petition gathering.

"A deadline is a deadline when it's not blown because of the actions of a government agency," Miller said.

Cory also decided not to grant a deadline extension to the group gathering signatures for the Angle-Gustavson Property Tax Reform petition seeking to cap Nevada's property taxes in a constitutional amendment similar to California's Proposition 13, which has essentially rendered the initiative dead.

Tony Dane, a consultant on the initiative, said the group was harassed in a similar fashion as the Nevadans For Sound Government, and as a remedy it should be granted the same deadline extension of July 20.

The group gathered more than 45,500 signatures, but failed to obtain the 51,337 needed by the June 15 deadline. Dane said his May 18 arrest at the University of Nevada Las Vegas while he was gathering signatures for the property tax cap and one of the Nevadans for Sound Government's initiatives, struck fear in volunteers resulting in a loss of 70 to 100 signature gatherers.

Cory said while Nevadans For Sound Government immediately contacted the Secretary of State upon being harassed and later went through the Nevada State Supreme Court and the District Court to seek a remedy, the property tax cap petitioners failed to do so.

Miller said granting an extension to Dane's group could have had a negative impact on the upcoming election as county clerks are learning how to use new electronic voting machines. With the deadline already extended to the Nevadans for Sound Government,another such extension would have made it difficult for some of Nevada's smaller counties to be ready for Nov. 2.