New opinion challenges Miller’s recall policy

Early this week, it looked as if a campaign to oust two Boulder City Council members had been quashed by a new interpretation of state law that limits who should be allowed to sign a recall petition.

Not so fast, say lawyers for the Nevada Legislature.

In an opinion issued Wednesday, the Legislative Counsel Bureau rejected the more-restrictive reading of state election law, arguing instead that any registered voter should be allowed to sign a petition to recall one of his or her elected representatives.

In March, Secretary of State Ross Miller ruled that only voters who participated in the election of a public official were allowed to sign a recall petition against that official. In May, the Nevada attorney general's office backed Miller's new take on the law.

As a result, county election workers tossed out roughly one-third of the signatures on recall petitions filed early this month against Boulder City Council members Travis Chandler and Linda Strickland.

The Chandler petition has officially failed, and the Strickland petition is about to.

Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said his office is in the midst of a full verification of signatures on the Strickland petitions, and early returns indicate the effort will fall short of the numbers needed to force a recall election.

"It's going to fail, I don't have any doubt about that," Lomax said.

Had the petitions been tallied the way the Legislative Counsel Bureau said they should be, he said, both "would have passed overwhelmingly."

It's unclear what impact the opinion might have beyond providing fodder for a possible court challenge of Miller's interpretation of the law.

Lomax said he takes his orders from Miller, the state's top elections officer, "and he hasn't given us any new directive."

Miller's deputy for elections, Matt Griffin, said the secretary of state's office is aware of the counsel bureau opinion, but "our interpretation is unchanged."

Even so, this latest take on state law does represent a measure of vindication for Lomax. He has said from the beginning that he disagreed with Miller's reading.

Asked Friday what he thought of the counsel bureau's opinion, Lomax said, "It looks correct to me."

Boulder City resident Christine Milburn, who helped organize the recall effort against Chandler and Strickland, offered a similar take.

"It doesn't surprise me. We knew that all along," she said.

Milburn said her group's next move will be to appeal the results of the signature verification process. After that, they will likely file a lawsuit seeking to overturn Miller's interpretation of state recall statutes.

"We've retained an attorney. That decision will be made quickly in the next week or so," she said. "We are confident that if we do appeal it to the court, we will prevail."

The Legislative Counsel Bureau weighed in on the issue at the request of Sen. Terry Care, D-Las Vegas. He asked the bureau to render an opinion on state law governing recalls because he had some concerns about Miller's interpretation.

"I have no interest in what's happening in Boulder City. That's not in my district, and I have no interest in that (recall) at all," said Care, who is a partner with statewide law firm McDonald, Carano, Wilson. "It just goes to show you that there are differences of opinion even among lawyers."