Teachers say Sharron Angle's Prop. 13-style petition invalid

The teachers union has challenged Sharron Angle's Proposition 13 petition, saying it has many of the same defects that disqualified three other petitions earlier this year.

The letter by Thomas Wilczek of the law firm representing the teachers charges there are numerous instances where the person who circulated the petitions failed to do it correctly. That affidavit must, by Nevada law, state that the circulator personally circulated the document, that all signers did so in his presence and that each had the chance to read the full text of the petition first.

In the more than 1,000 signature pages examined in Clark County, Wilczek's letter says, "the vast majority of these affidavits were not signed by the purported circulator or anyone else.

It says similar problems were found in Carson City where 71 of 330 pages submitted were not signed or notarized. That cuts the number of valid signatures by 2,061, according to the letter, pulling the total below the minimum 1,525 needed to qualify.

In Clark County, the problems, Wilczek argues, make it clear random sampling does not accurately show whether enough valid signatures were submitted and that a full signature-by-signature verification is needed.

According to the letter, the situation is very similar to that which occurred earlier this year when Secretary of State Ross Miller invalidated the Education Enhancement Act, Funding Nevada's Priorities Act and Taxpayer Protection Act.

Miller's office said there would be no comment on the matter until after the close of business today, the deadline for all other Nevada counties to turn in reports on whether the petition collected signatures of at least 10 percent of voters who voted in the last general election.

This year's petition drive was initially stopped because Angle's people failed to file their signatures with county clerks including Clark County by the 5 p.m. May 20 statutory deadline. But the Nevada Supreme Court ruled the deadline should be June 17 because there is a conflict in the law.

Angle has tried, unsuccessfully, to get a version of California's Proposition 13 property tax cap on the Nevada ballot at least four times.