Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Petition drive to get stadium funding initiative on ballot falls short

Stadium

Cordish Cos.

Artist’s rendering of proposed stadium.

An initiative to put the issue of public funding for a $200 million downtown soccer stadium on the June ballot failed to get enough signatures to qualify, the Clark County Elections Department announced today.

But hope still remains for petition supporters — led by City Councilman Bob Beers — who are seeking a court ruling next week that would lower the number of signatures required and land the initiative back on the ballot.

On Jan. 23, stadium opponents turned in 9,811 signatures to the Las Vegas City Clerk’s Office, more than the 8,258 signature needed to get the issue on the ballot.

But a verification process by the Clark County Elections Department found about a third of the signatures were not valid, leaving stadium opponents short of the number required.

The Elections Department conducted its check by randomly sampling 500 signatures. Only 71 percent of the sampled signatures were valid, with the rest invalidated because they weren’t from registered voters or the person who signed didn’t live in Las Vegas. That left a total of 6,966 valid signatures.

The stadium initiative’s fate now rests in the hands of District Court Judge Jerry Wiese, who will hold a hearing Wednesday on a lawsuit filed by opponents of public stadium funding against the city.

The lawsuit alleges the city clerk improperly calculated the number of signatures required. The clerk told stadium opponents they would need 2,306 signatures when they launched the ballot initiative on Jan. 7, but that number was revised to 8,258 a week later after the clerk discovered an error in the calculations.

If the judge agrees that only 2,306 signatures are needed, the stadium initiative, which would amend the city charter to block public funding for stadium projects, would go to voters in the June 4 election.

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