Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2004 | 10:57 a.m.
Just 41 days before the election, Nevada is still without a ballot.
Attorneys filed yet another lawsuit Monday asking the Nevada Supreme Court to halt a ballot initiative, forcing officials to further delay printing absentee ballots.
Clark County officials had printed about $500,000 worth of ballots Saturday when the state Supreme Court ordered Secretary of State Dean Heller to rewrite a ballot explanation of Question 3, the Keep Our Doctors in Nevada initiative.
Heller's staff complied, but several attorneys affiliated with the Nevada Trial Laywers Association argued in an emergency motion Monday that the new explanation still doesn't specify the measure's consequences, including its fiscal impact.
County clerks are expected to hold printing of absentee ballots while the motion is resolved. The ballots were scheduled to be mailed by Thursday to meet federal guidelines.
Clark County Registrar Larry Lomax said he won't mail the absentee ballots before the beginning of next week. It could put troops serving overseas in danger of losing their right to vote, he said.
"As far as I'm concerned, all these special interest groups are way more concerned about their own interests than providing these people with the right to vote," Lomax said.
Heller said he might appeal to the Justice Department to investigate a recent spate of lawsuits he said were designed specifically to hold up the ballot.
Attorneys, he said, want to hold up the measure in court until state officials are forced to remove it from the ballot.
"I am considering writing a letter to the Justice Department because games are being played to delay the ballots until Question 3 is killed," Heller said.
"I'm sure the Justice Department would take a look at an action that will make it too late to mail absentee ballots to our military men and women overseas. The courts are tying my hands on this matter."
When officials rewrote the explanation this weekend, it grew from 274 words to 697. But attorney Bill Bradley and other argue it is still incomplete.
In its ruling Saturday, the court gave the secretary of state two options: Reword the explanation adequately or drop the measure from the ballot.
The suit argues that the secretary of state should be held in contempt of court and the measure should be dropped from the ballot.
Heller expressed outrage Monday, saying his office asked Bradley and other attorneys to help word the measure, but Bradley declined to help, he said.
Bradley did not return calls for comment Monday afternoon.
Six ballot measures are scheduled to appear on the November ballot. Each has a short explanation for voters, followed by arguments both for and against, written by committees.
The language describing several initiatives has been controversial for weeks, with several groups arguing the process is unfair.
"There's no challenging this," said Danny Thompson, executive secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO of Nevada, which is sponsoring the initiative to increase minimum wage.
"They can put a half-truth in there or an outright lie, and the secretary of state's office, from what I see, is accepting whatever the committees put out."
Representatives from three initiatives complained to the attorney general's office, Deputy Attorney General Vicky Oldenburg said.
Once the committees agree on language, state law gives Heller little authority in reviewing the arguments, simply saying he can reject portions that are "inaccurate or libelous," Oldenburg said.
"He guides people through this process but he can't at all alter the meaning of the pro-con arguments," she said.
The secretary of state's office did extensive research on the facts behind several measures, Oldenburg said.
Sometimes -- for example, on the charge that doctors are leaving the state in droves -- there is no authoritative study. Some studies show the state has seen a net increase in doctors.
Heller and other officials already have expressed concern about the new process of allowing committees to craft the arguments for and against ballot measures.
"People do end up reading it and being influenced by it," Thompson said. "To what degree, I don't know."
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