Legislature must repair initiative laws

Friday, Sept. 3, 2004 | 11:09 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- With a number of provisions in the state's election laws falling to court challenges, the 2005 Legislature will have some major repair work to do.

"We're going to be overwhelmed," says Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, chairman of the Legislative Committee that handles the work of the Legislature between sessions.

To get a head start on solving problems that have surfaced this election season involving initiatives and referendums, the Senate and Assembly committees need to conduct hearings after the election but before the Legislature begins, Townsend said.

The most recent blow to the state election laws came Thursday, when the Nevada Supreme Court invalidated a section of the state's Constitution that required initiative petition submissions to be accompanied by affidavits signed by registered voters.

The ruling added two more initiatives to the November ballot -- one to increase the minimum wage in Nevada and another to prohibit the Legislature from limiting the amount of money that can be awarded to winners of civil lawsuits.

Prior to that ruling, a federal district court in Las Vegas had wiped out a requirement that, to qualify for the election ballot, an initiative petition must have 10 percent of the signatures of voters in 13 of the 17 counties.

And the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to rule soon on an issue involving people who signed petitions and registered to vote at the same time. Some of those voter registration cards were not turned in until later and were not processed by the county election offices, so those people's petition signatures were disqualified.

The initiative that would change state law to allow adults to possess up to one ounce of marijuana hangs on the interpretation of the appellate court. A favorable ruling would give the petition an additional 2,300 signatures and enough to put it over the 51,337 required.

Meanwhile, the referendum petition to repeal the $833.5 million tax increase is being appealed to Secretary of State Dean Heller, who is the chief election officer. Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said that as a result of Thursday's ruling the state Legislature -- or perhaps the the secretary of state or the attorney general -- needs to outline new laws for gathering signatures.

Townsend said there is vagueness in the law on election matters.

He said his Legislative Commission will work with the Assembly Elections, Procedures and Ethics Committee and the Senate Government Affairs Committee to try to conduct public hearings before the Legislature convenes in February.

Renee Parker, chief deputy secretary of state, said Thursday she had submitted her requests to the Legislature for changes in the election law. The bill was due by Sept. 1. Parker said, however, that because of the uncertainty of court cases, the legislative legal staff allowed her until Nov. 30 to detail what changes have to be made to the bill.

"We will be trying to make a lot of changes, but we are uncertain at this point what they will be," Parker said.

State Sens. Dennis Nolan and Barbara Cegavske, both Las Vegas Republicans, have also submitted bill requests that they say are intended to clear away some of the problems that have arisen this election season.

Nolan said the biggest complaint from voters is the way circulators pitch their petition. He said those gathering signatures never inform the voter of all the issues included in the petition.

Cegavske wants those supporters of an initiative or referendum to provide a "summary in plain language what the issues propose to do" before the petition is circulated.

Sun reporter Kirsten Searer contributed to this story.