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StumbleSharron Angle sues secretary of state over ballot initiatives
Sharron Angle, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, speaks during a “Tea Party Express” rally Aug. 31 at the Las Vegas Sports Center.
Published Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009 | 10:16 a.m.
Updated Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009 | 5:41 p.m.
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Beyond the Sun
U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle filed suit in federal court Monday in hopes of voiding state rules she says hinder her initiative to limit property taxes.
The Republican former Reno assemblywoman, who is competing in the primary for the right to run against Sen. Harry Reid, filed suit against Secretary of State Ross Miller.
The suit seeks a declaration that initiatives can be circulated without requiring petition gatherers to comply with certain verification rules -- rules Angle claims are raising fears of criminal prosecutions.
The suit, filed by Las Vegas attorney Kermitt Waters, also includes plaintiffs We the People, a ballot advocacy group chaired by Angle; and the national foundation Citizens in Charge.
Virginia-based Citizens in Charge helped finance previous property tax initiatives in 2006 and 2008 in Nevada and plans to assist with another initiative in the current election cycle, the suit says.
The suit notes We the People tried to propose ballot initiatives in the 2004, 2006 and 2008 election cycles but could not qualify the initiatives because of various problems. In 2008, placement of the initiative was blocked by a lawsuit.
Now, Angle and her group say in Monday's lawsuit they are worried about a precedent in Oklahoma in which a Citizens in Charge petition circulator faced criminal prosecution over what the suit called "technical violations" of state law there.
"The citizens of We the People are afraid that because of the hostility shown to any initiative petition proposed by the citizens, that they too could be subject to criminal prosecution," the lawsuit says.
"Specifically, Sharron Angle is afraid that the attorney general and or the district attorney will prosecute their circulators who 'verify' that a citizen swore that they were a registered voter or a United States citizen, if in fact they were not. If a circulator does not sign the verification form attached to the gathered signatures, which must be signed under penalty of perjury, the Secretary of State will not accept the signatures submitted in support of the initiative petition," the suit says.
The suit says Nevada law and Secretary of State regulations make it difficult to put an initiative on the ballot because of the requirement that circulators must certify that voters they collect signatures from are registered to vote in their county of residence.
"There are no reasonable, practical or economical ways for a circulator to know, while gathering signatures in the field, whether or not, a person signing the initiative petition is in fact a registered voter in that county," the suit complains.
This has had a chilling effect on the petition-gathering process, the suit complains.
The Secretary of State's office was reviewing the complaint Tuesday and had no immediate comment on the allegations.
Volunteers "are aware that one of their co-plaintiffs, Paul Jacob of Citizens in Charge, was indicted criminally in Oklahoma for a conspiracy to violate the election laws that require a similar affidavit that all signature gatherers are in fact residents of Oklahoma."
"The circulators for We the People understand that even though they can accept signatures from registered voters, statistically, over 25 percent of the signatures gathered will be from individuals who are not validly registered," the suit complains.
The suit charges state rules requiring certification violate the First, Fifth and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution in that they chill free speech and potentially require circulators to incriminate themselves.
In 2008, Angle's petition effort gathered 83,000 signatures to amend the Nevada Constitution to limit taxes. But the Nevada teachers union filed suit and a district judge ruled there were defects in the petition that prevented it from going on the ballot.
The 2008 measure proposed to limit property taxes to 1 percent of the base value of the property pegged to the fiscal 2003-2004 value. When the property would be sold the base value would be increased annually only by 2 percent.
In an interview Tuesday, Angle said she hasn't decided yet whether to pursue a property tax initiative for the 2010 ballot. Angle said she's also considering sponsoring an initiative to reform the initiative process; and would be supporting an effort in the Legislature to do the same thing.
Angle said she'd like to see a system in which voters could sign petitions online, just as they can register to vote online. Such online petition signatures could be verified with state computers matching the signatures against voter registration information, she said.
This would reassure financial sponsors of initiatives, who now have to worry that their money will be spent on dealing with costly lawsuits, she said.
"To have to fight lawsuits, it's a very chilling effect" on the initiative process, Angle said.
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sharron angle is a pathetic loser...
you know at some point the stupid pathetic republican liars have to be taught that cutting taxes is not a panacea...
this is nothing more than pandering to the base to try to get some votes...
pathetic!!!
absolutley pathetic!!!
cougar watch - tighten up those loose shoes all you welfear loving californicators
Nevada is going to have a real man-eater run that Dirty Harry Reid clean out of the desert and back into the closet where he and his kind belong
cougar watch - tighten up those loose shoes all you welfear loving californicators
Nevada is going to have real man-eaters run that Dirty Harry Reid clean out of the desert and back into the closet where he and his kind belong
Last time she was on Face to Face, she endorsed Yucca Mtn for nuke waste storage and was for nuclear power. I have a feeling she won't go over well with southern Nevada voters.
Odd a person helping gather signatures can be held responsible for a NV voter signature which must be signed under penalty of perjury. . .where is the NV AG or a County DA when a County Assessor does not honor the Declaration of value form that is on file for every parcel in Nevada that is also signed under penalty of perjury? This continues Democrat's effort to grow the state government by a phoney and fraudulent property tax scheme. . . that grows state and county employees pay checks and PERS accounts by robbing property owners.
What hypocrites. These same CReeps whine and scream over a few wrong ACORN registrations, then they demand that voter verification requirements be removed from the petition process when it suits them! Oddly enough, I might just root for Angle's law suit... Just so it would be easier to collect signatures for initiatives to legalize marijuana, legalize marriage equality, allow for a mining tax, and protect education funding from fools like Angle. ;-)
They should look and see if Secretary of State Ross Miller complied with all campaign contribution reporting requirements.
The Attorney General's Office says it prosecutes people regardless of who they are or the office they hold if they broke the law. Krolicki gets prosecuted, and Janet Moncrief was criminally prosecuted by, I believe, Conrad Hafen, for failing to disclose all of her campaign contributions.
If Ross Miller failed to report all of his campaign contributions, would Conrad Hafen prosecute him, even if his boss, Catherine Cortez-Masto, was Chief of Staff to Ross's dad?
Ms. Angle is barking up a dead tree fighting the establishment over taxes. She ought to be fighting the tax and spend crowd over balanced budget amendments willed by the people.
Abolish property taxes. Fire the stupid bureaucrats and social workers. Taxes are slavery.
Petitions in this State ARE VITAL as a form of Government. Registered Voters have the right to sign them (and petition the Government).
Key Word: *REGISTERED*
UNTIL SECRETARY(IES) OF STATE RUN(S) AS PART OF EVERY VOTER REGISTRATION, ALL NAMES ELECTRONICALLY THROUGH E-VERIFY AND OTHER LAWFUL DATABASES FOR EVERY CURRENT REGISTRATION AND AT EVERY ATTEMPTED REAL-TIME REGISTRATION BY A REGISTRAR, AND MAKES THIS LAWFUL DATABASE AVAILABLE TO PETITION GATHERERS ELECTRONICALLY AND IN REAL-TIME WHEN THEY ARE GATHERING SIGNATURES,
We are going to be arguing about this until the cows come home.
We're spending Big Buck$ on electronic medical records, aren't we...?
(Hint: Why NO Administration proposals on Lawful Real-Time Electronic E-Verify-type Voter Registration? Hmmm? Answer: ACORN, LA RAZA, etc.)
The Legislature is terrified of ballet initiatives and makes these crazy rules to hinder them. They only act when threatened by a ballot initiative, and sometimes even then they stall too long. Look at the smoking ban and term limits laws passed by the voters. The good ol' boys didn't act so the people went around them and did it themselves. How scary! Boo!
Is she related to Kurt Angle of Main Event Mafia?