Judge asked to review Nevada petition dispute

A judge was asked Tuesday to resolve a dispute over a petition to limit smoking in public places - a petition that was disqualified as a result of a controversial attorney general's opinion.

Carson City District Judge Bill Maddox was asked by lawyers for the American Cancer Society and Secretary of State Dean Heller to determine whether the petition should be presented to the 2005 Legislature.

The case also would affect a second smoking-restriction proposal and a petition to ease marijuana possession laws. All three proposals were derailed as a result of the attorney general's opinion.

Cancer Society attorney Bob Crowell called the request to Maddox the best way to get a quick ruling on the number of signatures required on initiative petitions.

Besides the case pending before Maddox, the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, representing the Marijuana Policy Project, plans to file a federal court lawsuit this week over the opinion by Attorney General Brian Sandoval.

Sandoval is standing by his opinion despite a request from Heller to reconsider. Relying on that opinion, Heller last month said the initiative petitions to limit smoking and to permit adults to have one ounce of marijuana failed because they did not have a required 83,156 valid signatures.

The Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association had gathered 64,871 signatures for their proposal. Proponents of the second petition to limit smoking, supported by casinos and bars, turned in 74,348 signatures and the Regulation of Marijuana initiative had 69,261 signatures.

The petitioners believed they had to submit only 51,337 valid signatures, based on a requirement of 10 percent of the voter turnout in the preceding election. They felt that meant the 2002 election when about 512,000 voters turned out.

They submitted their petitions after the Nov. 2 election - and the attorney general's office then said the most recent election had to be used on calculating the 10 percent of the turnout. More than 830,000 voters went to the polls last month.

Crowell said petitioners delayed turning in their signatures until after the 2004 election at the request of some county officials who said they had too much work facing them.