Urge the Nevada Assembly to concur with the Senate version of A.J.R. 5

We have made great strides in fighting the legislature's attempt to restrict citizen access to the Nevada initiative process. The Nevada Senate has passed a watered-down version of Assembly Joint Resolution 5 (A.J.R. 5), the constitutional amendment that would make Nevada's citizen initiative process—already one of the toughest initiative laws in the country—so restrictive that normal, everyday Nevadans would have no chance to place an initiative on the ballot. These changes are designed to place even more power in the hands of the politicians and special interests in Carson City. Now it is time to make sure that we secure the gains made this session.

Please, urge the Nevada Assembly to concur with the Senate version of Assembly Joint Resolution 5 (A.J.R. 5).

Late Friday evening, the Senate passed a stripped-down version of A.J.R. 5. The Assembly version of the bill increased the number of signatures required for a statewide initiative to qualify for the ballot from 10% of the votes cast in the previous general election to 15% for a statutory initiative and 20% for a constitutional initiative, required that petitioners meet the new percentage quota in each of Nevada's three congressional districts, and banned an initiative from being placed on the ballot for three years if it did not muster 45% of the vote.

Of these three undemocratic reforms, the Senate revision contains only a modified version of the congressional-district provision, so that petitioners would need to gather only 10% of the votes cast in the previous general election in each congressional district—for both types of initiatives. While that is not perfect, it is a vast improvement on the original version of A.J.R. 5. Also, since this is a constitutional amendment, A.J.R. 5 must pass the legislature again in 2007, and if it can survive that hurdle, it must be approved by the voters statewide on the November 2008 ballot.

The Assembly must now decide if it is going to concur with the stripped-down Senate version, or force the bill into conference committee to forge a compromise between the Senate and Assembly bills. If the Assembly concurs, the Senate version will be the bill that passes the legislature.

Please, take action now.

If the Assembly does not concur and A.J.R. 5 goes to a conference committee, there is the potential that we could lose one or more of the gains we won in the Senate. Big-money special interests are lobbying hard in Carson City right now trying to get the most restrictive version of A.J.R. 5 they can possibly get.

We need you to keep that from happening.

If the more-restrictive provisions of the Assembly version of A.J.R. 5 had been in place a few years ago, the initiative to tax and regulate marijuana would not be on the 2006 ballot. Once you've e-mailed the Assembly, please also call your Assembly member and ask him or her to concur with the Senate version of A.J.R. 5.

Call your Assembly member today.

Remember, the 2005 session is not the end of the road for this fight. Because A.J.R. 5 would change the Nevada Constitution, the legislature will have to pass A.J.R. 5 again in the 2007 session—followed by a vote of the people in 2008. This is just the first step. We will continue to fight every step of the way to preserve the initiative process in Nevada.