Pubdate: Fri, 13 Jul 2001
Source: Columbus Dispatch (OH)
Copyright: 2001 The Columbus Dispatch
Contact:  http://www.dispatch.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/93
Author: Doug Caruso

POT PETITION PROPONENTS WANT A RECOUNT AFTER FALLING SHORT

The campaign to decriminalize marijuana in Columbus took a big hit yesterday.

The Franklin County Board of Elections reported that pot proponents are 
1,858 signatures short of the 7,213 needed to place an issue on the 
November ballot calling for Columbus police and prosecutors to ignore laws 
governing possession of up to 7 ounces of marijuana.

Kenneth Schweickart, president of For a Better Ohio, the group promoting 
the initiative, said he wants a recount.

Schweickart charged yesterday that elections' officials botched the count 
because they are in the midst of a move to new offices and because they 
don't have enough workers to do the job accurately.

The Board of Elections, at 410 S. High St., is moving to 280 E. Broad St. 
during the weekend.

"It's extremely unlikely that they could have counted the signatures and 
evaluated them thoroughly," Schweickart said. "We were just so diligent 
about voter registration, and our validity should be much higher. We should 
have enough to make it on the ballot."

For a Better Ohio registered 3,100 voters during its petition drive, he said.

After his staff spent the past two weeks checking 10,762 signatures on the 
petition, Board of Elections Director Guy Reece II reported to the Columbus 
city clerk late yesterday afternoon that just 5,355 were from registered 
Columbus voters.

City law requires at least 7,213 signatures -- 5 percent of the turnout in 
the last general election.

Most of the invalid signatures, Reece said, were from unregistered voters 
or from voters registered outside of Columbus.

One elections worker said yesterday that the petition was one of the 
sloppiest she's seen. Just fewer than half the signatures were valid. 
Normally, about 70 percent of the signatures on such a petition are valid.

The board checks petition signatures for the Columbus city clerk's office 
as a courtesy. Under city law, Clerk Timothy J. McSweeney has the final say 
on the petition's validity.

Petitioners could review the signatures themselves and make their case 
directly to the clerk that the petition is valid. Failing that, they could 
go to court to ask a judge to order McSweeney to validate the petition.

But time for such action is short. After a petition is certified, the City 
Council must take it up at its next regular meeting. The last such meeting 
before the state's Aug. 23 deadline to approve issues for the ballot is on 
July 30 because the council recesses in August.

Even if the initiative made it to the ballot and voters approved it, many 
question whether it would pass legal muster. Several lawyers have said that 
it would violate the Ohio Constitution. They say a city law cannot tell 
police and prosecutors to ignore a state law.

Schweickart has said that his own research indicates the initiative would 
hold up if approved.
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