Yesterday, a US District Court in Nevada ruled that once a petition drive has begun (in this case, for initiatives), the state cannot change the numerical requirement during the lifetime of that petition, even if a new election is held so that the new legal number of signatures is higher than the prior one.

Plaintiffs were backers of several initiatives that had been circulating during 2004. The proponents were legally permitted to finish the drive as late as December 2004, to qualify for the November 2006 ballot. Unfortunately, when they submitted the signatures in December 2004, the state said, “Sorry; the number of signatures depends on the last vote cast, and the number of votes cast in November 2004 (which is much higher than the 2002 number) now applies. The decision means that an initiative to legalize marijuana, and two initiatives dealing with tobacco, will now appear on the November 2006 ballot, unless of course the state appeals and gets the decision reversed.