New Gates recall effort rejected

The Secretary of State's office today turned down a request by a citizen's group to combine valid signatures from the two failed petition drives to recall Clark County Commission Chairwoman Yvonne Atkinson Gates.

The group, Citizens for Honest and Responsible Government, made the request after learning Friday that its second petition effort this year failed because of a lack of legitimate signatures from a random sample count.

"I will say that these efforts have cost the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars and that (they) should stop wasting the taxpayers' money on their personal vendettas," Gates said today.

According to a report by Clark County Registrar of Voters Kathryn Ferguson, 46 signers did not even live in Gates' district and 45 of them were not event registered voters. Seven signatures on the petition did not match those on voter registration cards and one person signed twice.

The first recall effort, fueled by Gates' ethics laws violations earlier this year failed when 259 of the 500 random signatures were found to be invalid.

The group began the recall effort after Gates was reprimanded by the state Ethics Commission for her involvement in selecting concessionaires for McCarran International Airport's D Gates.

Charles Bennion, president of the group, said he asked for the signatures to be combined because he believes the 60-day time limitation required for gaining petition signatures is not in the state constitution.

Pamela Crowell, deputy Secretary of State for elections, said the matter is covered by state statutes which require petitions to be submitted 60 days after the date of the notice of intent for a recall is filed.

"I think the law is pretty clear," Commissioner Myrna Williams said. "The secretary of state is following the law -- that's it. The important thing is that her (Gates') district supports her."

Commissioner Mary Kincaid said: "It shows Yvonne has strong support in her district, and I hope they do not try again so that we can get back to the business of running the county."

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