SB212

No petition made it on the ballot in 2008. This is because of the new laws passed by the Legislature making it far more difficult for a petition to succeed. And yet, the Legislature wants to make it even harder. If SB212 passes it will kill the right to petition by making it logistically impossible for a petition drive to succeed. Under Nevada’s Constitution you have the “right” to petition, but with so many barriers erected by the Legislature your right will be on paper only, because it will be totally impractical to try to get anything on the ballot. Almost no one I talk to understands the tremendous antagonism most of the Legislators have for petitions. The Legislators view petitions as a threat to their power. They DON’T WANT THE PEOPLE to have the right to petition, because it challenges their power and control.

Already, the Senate has voted to take away your right to elect your JUDGES and the Board of Regents. Senate Committees have voted to take away your right to vote on fluoridation and the State School Board. NOW the whole Senate will vote TO TAKE AWAY YOUR RIGHT TO PETITION by making it incredibly difficult—possibly impossible for a petition to succeed.

The vote on SB212 in committee was engineered by Senator Raggio by getting a legal opinion from his own private law firm Jones Vargus. This is unheard of! The legal council, as we have been told a hundred times for the Legislature, is the Legislative Council Bureau. This is a measure of what lengths certain Senators, the mines and casinos will go to in order to kill the right to petition.

MESSAGE: Vote NO on SB212: Don’t take away the people’s right to petition by requiring signatures to be obtained in all 42 Assembly Districts. Requiring all signature gathers to have expensive electronic devices like blackberries to log into the Secretary of State’s website to find the Assembly District of the petition signer will greatly increase the time necessary to gather each signature. It will reduce the ability to gather signatures from 15 or 20 signatures an hour to 2 or 3 an hour, vastly increasing the actual cost and time of petitioning.

CONTACT all Senators: Emails are their first initial added to their last name.

Amodei 775-684-1470, Breeden 775-684-1457, Care 775-684-6503, Carlton 775-684-1431,

Cegvaske 775-684-1445, Coffin 775-684-1427, Copening 775-684-1475, Hardy 775-684-1462,

Horsford 775-684-1429, Lee 775-684-1424, Mathews 775-684-1433, McGinness 775-684-1442,

Nolan 775-684-1421, Parks 775-684-6504, Raggio 775-684-1419, Rhoads 775-684-1447,

Schneider 775-684-6502, Townsend 775-684-1450, Washington 775-684-1480, Wiener 775-684-1422, Woodhouse 775-684-1481

Southern Nevada 702-486-2626, Toll Free 800-978-2878 Toll free fax: 866-543-9941

More info on SB212 is a rehash of Rhoads petition killing bill from 2007. Because in Montana the mining industry lost on a petition/ballot question, Rhoads and those he represents are trying to kill the right to petition in Nevada. They should exercise free speech like we do and oppose the petition/ballot question, making their case to the voters, instead of killing our right to petition!

This bill requires the petitioners to gather 5%of the registered voters in EVERY ONE of 42 ASSEMBLY DISTRICTS plus 5% statewide. This is almost completely impossible unless you have multi-millions of dollars and even then it is nearly impossible logistically. In addition, in order to locate which Assembly District a potential signer lives in, this bills allows a petitioners to carry an electronic device capable of accessing the Internet (a blackberry, a palm pilot, expensive cell-phone) to check with a Statewide Voter List kept by the Secretary of State on line. Can you imagine trying to gather signatures and having to check each person’s Assembly District via your blackberry (if you have one) before they can sign one of the 42 petitions you are carrying! It will take at least 10-15 minutes just to get a single signature!

SB212 will greatly increase the cost and time to petition and the number of volunteers or paid petitioners needed to succeed. In fact, I think it makes it impossible to succeed using volunteer, and only those with multi-millions of dollars will even have a small chance to get on the ballot. It also prohibits a petitioner from filling in the Assembly District for the signer. Currently, the law already imposes a felony on petitioners who add to or alter a petition….so for filling in an Assembly District you might be charged with a felony. THIS BILL IS DESIGNED TO KILL THE RIGHT OF PETITION! For a copy of the bill: http://www.leg.state.nv.us/75th2009/Bills/SB/SB212.pdf

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