cannabisnews.com: Hearing on Missing Marijuana Petition Signatures Hearing on Missing Marijuana Petition Signatures Posted by CN Staff on June 25, 2004 at 08:16:02 PT By Erin Neff, Review-Journal Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal Many Las Vegans spent Thursday snickering over the saga of a misplaced box of signatures designed to help qualify a ballot petition seeking to legalize possession of marijuana. But the litany of "were they high?" or "dude, what a bummer" jokes heard on radio, in Starbucks and over water coolers is no laughing matter to petition organizer Billy Rogers, who Wednesday filed an emergency request for a hearing in District Court. Judge Ken Cory will hear the case this afternoon. "Ultimately, what we're saying is that all of these petitions were properly notarized and signed before June 15," Rogers said, referring to last week's deadline to submit petitions. "A remedy exists to count them." Rogers said it took him two hours to count the signatures he discovered on a chair in his office Saturday, four days after the deadline to turn in the signatures. "They can put two people on it and double-check and still get done in time," Rogers said. Clark County election officials were given a raw count of signatures on the initiative Tuesday from the secretary of state's office. The local officials now must determine the number of valid signatures on the petition by randomly surveying 5 percent of the signatures turned in. Without the 6,000 signatures, election officials believe Rogers' Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana will not have enough of a cushion to meet the roughly 51,000 signatures required statewide to qualify a petition for the ballot. Most initiative petitions have a 30 percent error rate, meaning three out of every 10 signatures on a petition belongs to someone who isn't qualified to sign. Rogers thought he was turning in 41,000 signatures in Clark County to meet the county's requirement of 31,360 signatures. But without the misplaced box, he actually turned in 35,000. On Wednesday, Rogers said he has no idea how the box of signatures landed in his office sometime late Friday or early Saturday morning. "The petitions were stored in my office, which was under lock," said Rogers, president of the Southwest Group. "We did a hard count about six days before the turn-in day. That was to figure out where we were and where we needed to go." On June 14, he said all of the boxes from the marijuana initiative and three others his firm was handling were taken to a counting room and bundled in boxes for delivery to the county election department the next day. "We thought we turned in 969 booklets with almost 41,000 signatures," Rogers said. "That's what we thought until Saturday afternoon when I walked in my office and found a box sitting on a chair that people had been sitting in the day before. "I don't know how those signatures came to be in my office and I don't know who put them here because nobody in my office that I have talked to can tell me how they wound up here," Rogers added. "The bottom line is nobody has come to me and said `Billy I made a horrible mistake.' " Rogers said the discovery of legitimate signatures, which have been stored at attorney Ross Goodman's office for safekeeping since they were found, is akin to the discovery of a ballot box after the polls close on election day. "If it's prior to the canvass, you do something about it," Rogers said. "You count the votes. These are in fact votes. These are people who are voting to put this on the ballot so all Nevadans have a choice." The petition seeks to legalize possession of 1 ounce of marijuana, sold by the state. The petition also would increase penalties for driving under the influence and for selling or providing drugs to a minor.Complete Title: Hearing on Missing Marijuana Petition Signatures Planned for TodaySource: Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV)Author: Erin Neff, Review-JournalPublished: Thursday, June 24, 2004Copyright: 2004 Las Vegas Review-JournalContact: letters lvrj.comWebsite: http://www.lvrj.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/Forgotten Box of Pot Petition Signatures Foundhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19056.shtmlMJ Initiative Backers Forgot 6,000 Signatures http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19055.shtmlLegalization of Marijuana: Initiative in Jeopardyhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19052.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #12 posted by Hope on June 26, 2004 at 09:09:21 PT how things disappear I can imagine the box being set in a chair in a low traffic corner. After a bit...someone tosses a jacket over them. The phone rings. Soon the box just "disappears" right in front of them. Bet nothing like it ever happens to our crew again. (My mother used to say, "If it had been a snake, it would have bitten you." meaning of course, 'it's right in front of your eyes but you can't see it.') [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by WolfgangWylde on June 26, 2004 at 04:50:37 PT Sounds like they screwed the pooch... ...on this one. Not to mention giving the Drug Warrriors something to joke about. I mean come on, he found them "on a chair". Yeah, I could see how that would be hard to spot for days on end. Stick a fork in it, its done. [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by Richard Paul Zuckerm on June 25, 2004 at 11:26:56 PT: BILLY ROGERS SHOULD BE FIRED AND PAY! Billy Rogers should be fired and should pay for his failure to properly produce the petitions to get the Ballot Measure for the November election!!! [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by kaptinemo on June 25, 2004 at 10:21:40 PT: And for those awful serous days I am a avid observer of political cartooning, and attempt to canvas as many sites as I can in hopes of finding occasional gems.http://www.theillustrateddailyscribble.com/ is a favorite of mine, and this one illustrates the Republican attitude towards accountability in government perfectly: http://www.theillustrateddailyscribble.com/daily.scribble.jpgs/06.25.04.cheney.cusses.leah.jpgWARNING! Dirty language! Not for little kids. This is what we have running this country... [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by E_Johnson on June 25, 2004 at 09:57:24 PT AlterNet has really matured It's looking good. One of the success stories of the Internet. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by FoM on June 25, 2004 at 09:19:44 PT Thanks kapt That's an interesting article. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by kaptinemo on June 25, 2004 at 09:06:24 PT: Unrelated: Police attitudes to MMJ Apologies if this has already been posted:Which Cops Would You Pick for Your Town? By David Borden, AlterNet. Posted June 23, 2004. http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/19026/ [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by medicinal toker on June 25, 2004 at 09:05:19 PT related article Friday, June 25, 2004 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-JournalEDITORIAL: Smuggler's BluesOrganizers of Nevada's latest petition drive to legalize small quantities of marijuana now say they forgot to turn in a box of 6,000 signatures when they filed the documents June 15.Billy Rogers' Southwest Group -- retained to qualify the petition for the cleverly named Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana -- announced last week they'd filed enough signatures to get the proposal on the state's November ballot -- about 35,000 total in Clark County, less than 4,000 more than the required 31,360.(Petitioners often try to submit half again as many signatures as required, since a certain percentage are usually found invalid.)But if 6,000 more were left under the rear seat -- and unless Mr. Rogers can now get Clark County Registrar Larry Lomax to accept the misplaced signatures, which Mr. Rogers claims were notarized prior to the June 15 deadline -- the fate of the initiative may come down to whether the group qualified in all the remaining Nevada counties.Mr. Rogers was obviously attempting to position himself for a lawsuit with his Monday letter to Mr. Lomax, asserting that, "Your refusal to accept signatures gathered prior to June 15, 2004, may disenfranchise voters. ..." In fact, the matter was expected to reach the courts as early as today.But our sources tell us the problem may actually be attributed to a fateful miscalculation in the order of Mr. Rogers' "do list" for June 15:1) Throw all signatures in van.2) Celebrate delivery of signatures by recreating traffic stop scene from Cheech & Chong's "Up in Smoke".3) Actually deliver signatures to Mr. Lomax's office ... . http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Jun-25-Fri-2004/opinion/24179085.htm [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by FoM on June 25, 2004 at 08:50:45 PT Marc Yes I do remember. I guess there is a hearing today. We'll see what happens. Politics are really hard for me to understand. I look at issues by using what I call common sense. Common sense and politics don't mix very well. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Marc Paquette on June 25, 2004 at 08:44:17 PT: They have found the box Hi FoM;They have found that box yesterday. Remember the article you and I posted yesterday? http://www.medpot.net/forums [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Hope on June 25, 2004 at 08:38:42 PT something not right Something strange about all this. Sabotage? Human error.I hope they get to the bottom of it quickly. Reminds me of the time years ago when that prohibitionist judge hid signatures on a pro-mmj iniative in her desk that weren't discovered until after her death. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on June 25, 2004 at 08:30:59 PT Off Topic: Sentencing Rules Justices, in 5-4 Vote, Raise Doubts on Sentencing Rules: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/25/politics/25SCOT.final.html?hpHigh-Court Ruling Creates Turmoil Over Sentencing: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001965123_sentences25m.html [ Post Comment ] Post Comment