An initiative to legalize pot in Nevada might go up in smoke after organizers forgot to file 6,000 petition signatures by a June 15 deadline. Clark County Registrar Larry Lomax said Billy Rogers, president of the political consulting firm seeking to qualify the petition, is pleading for him to accept the 6,000 names. "Unfortunately, the state law says they have to turn it all in by June 15," Lomax said. The oversight doesn't kill the petition outright, but drastically lessens the chances that the Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana's initiative will qualify in 13 of the state's 17 counties and thus secure a spot on the November statewide ballot. In Clark County, organizers submitted about 35,000 signatures — but given the usual 30 percent signature error rate, probably no more than 25,000 are valid.
The extra 6,000 signatures would have increased the chances, though by no means guarantee, that the initiative would reach its goal of 31,360 valid signatures. Rogers, who works for the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington, D.C., lobbying group, protested to Lomax that the 6,000 signatures had been properly notarized before June 15 — even if someone had forgot to submit them.
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