Hash
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Backers of two of three Nevada petitions to legalize marijuana and limit smoking in public places vowed to challenge a ruling that they failed to secure enough signatures to force the Legislature to act.
After receiving a legal opinion from Attorney General Brian Sandoval, Secretary of State Dean Heller ruled Monday that the three petitions were dead.
"Our job is to protect the health and safety of citizens who agreed with us and signed our petition," said Buffy Martin, government relations director for the American Cancer Society, the backer of one anti-smoking measure. "We owe it to them to challenge."
Bruce Mirken, communications chief for the Marijuana Policy Project said Heller's ruling violated his organization's due process rights.
None of the three petitions was signed by at least 83,156 residents, the minimum the attorney general's office decided was needed to force the Legislature to take them up during the 2005 session.
If legislators failed to act, the petitions would have been placed before voters in 2006.
Heller called it unfortunate the petitions failed because the groups were acting on advice from voting registrars that they needed 51,337 signatures to qualify. Each petition exceeded that total.
Martin's organization was part of the Nevada Tobacco Prevention Coalition, which collected 64,828 valid signatures on a petition to restrict smoking in public places including restaurants, supermarkets and most bars.
"We never were told the signature number was a moving target," she said. "We could have presented many more signatures."
The other anti-smoking petition, circulated by the Clean Indoor Act organization, a group that included bars and restaurants, secured 74,347 valid signatures.
Spokeswoman Lee Haney said she doubted the group will sue over the rejection but probably would circulate another petition.
"It would have been nice to know beforehand how many signatures we needed," she said. "We spent a lot of time and money gathering signatures."
The Clean Indoor Act petition would have permitted smoking to continue in most bars and in casino restaurants.
Neither petition proposed to ban smoking on casino floors.
Mirken's organization financed the Regulation of Marijuana petition drive to induce the Legislature to legalize an ounce of marijuana. It secured 69,261 valid signatures.
He said that as late as Nov. 19, Heller told petition-gatherers that the 2002 election was the basis for the signature requirement.
Under the state constitution, petitions must secure a total number of signatures equivalent to at least 10 percent of the voters in the "last preceding general election."
Joshua Hicks, chief deputy to Sandoval, determined the law referred to the Nov. 2 general election, when a record 831,563 voters cast ballots. That meant the petitions turned in seven days after the election needed 83,156 signatures to qualify.
Petition circulators began collecting signatures last summer aiming for 10 percent of the voter total in the 2002 general election, when 513,370 people voted.
https://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/12/21/state1106EST0054.DTL
After receiving a legal opinion from Attorney General Brian Sandoval, Secretary of State Dean Heller ruled Monday that the three petitions were dead.
"Our job is to protect the health and safety of citizens who agreed with us and signed our petition," said Buffy Martin, government relations director for the American Cancer Society, the backer of one anti-smoking measure. "We owe it to them to challenge."
Bruce Mirken, communications chief for the Marijuana Policy Project said Heller's ruling violated his organization's due process rights.
None of the three petitions was signed by at least 83,156 residents, the minimum the attorney general's office decided was needed to force the Legislature to take them up during the 2005 session.
If legislators failed to act, the petitions would have been placed before voters in 2006.
Heller called it unfortunate the petitions failed because the groups were acting on advice from voting registrars that they needed 51,337 signatures to qualify. Each petition exceeded that total.
Martin's organization was part of the Nevada Tobacco Prevention Coalition, which collected 64,828 valid signatures on a petition to restrict smoking in public places including restaurants, supermarkets and most bars.
"We never were told the signature number was a moving target," she said. "We could have presented many more signatures."
The other anti-smoking petition, circulated by the Clean Indoor Act organization, a group that included bars and restaurants, secured 74,347 valid signatures.
Spokeswoman Lee Haney said she doubted the group will sue over the rejection but probably would circulate another petition.
"It would have been nice to know beforehand how many signatures we needed," she said. "We spent a lot of time and money gathering signatures."
The Clean Indoor Act petition would have permitted smoking to continue in most bars and in casino restaurants.
Neither petition proposed to ban smoking on casino floors.
Mirken's organization financed the Regulation of Marijuana petition drive to induce the Legislature to legalize an ounce of marijuana. It secured 69,261 valid signatures.
He said that as late as Nov. 19, Heller told petition-gatherers that the 2002 election was the basis for the signature requirement.
Under the state constitution, petitions must secure a total number of signatures equivalent to at least 10 percent of the voters in the "last preceding general election."
Joshua Hicks, chief deputy to Sandoval, determined the law referred to the Nov. 2 general election, when a record 831,563 voters cast ballots. That meant the petitions turned in seven days after the election needed 83,156 signatures to qualify.
Petition circulators began collecting signatures last summer aiming for 10 percent of the voter total in the 2002 general election, when 513,370 people voted.
https://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/12/21/state1106EST0054.DTL
