Marijuana petition fails on second count

Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2004 | 11:02 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A second count of the signatures on an initiative petition to allow adults to each possess up to an ounce of marijuana has found that the petition does not have enough signatures to qualify for the election ballot.

The secretary of state's office reported today also that the petition to bar public employees from serving in the Nevada Legislature also came up short in the recount.

Both petitions needed 51,337 signatures of registered voters to be on the November election ballot. But the office reported the marijuana petition had only 49,412 valid signatures. Proponents of the initiative had turned in 66,235 names on the petition.

Advocates of the initiative to prohibit state and university employees from serving in the Legislature turned in 62,294 signatures but a recount showed only 44,548 were valid, officials said.

Backers of the marijuana petition have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court asking for more of their signatures to be counted. Thousands of signatures were turned in past the deadline and had been set aside by electons officials.

Both petitions sought to amend the Nevada Constitution and would have to be approved by the voters this November and in 2006 if they qualified for the ballot.

The report by the Nevada Secretary of State's Office is the latest development in the saga of various efforts to get initiatives onto the Nov. 2 ballot.

The petition to repeal the $833.5 million tax increase failed to gain enough signatures. Joel Hansen, attorney for Nevadans for Sound Government, said an appeal is being prepared to file with the secretary of state's office to contest the third count of the signatures.