Pubdate: Sat, 02 Oct 2004
Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (AK)
Copyright: 2004 Fairbanks Publishing Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.news-miner.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/764
Author: Associated Press
Cited: Yes on 2 ( www.yeson2alaska.com )
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/marijuana+initiative
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

SPONSORS WANT MORE BALLOT CHANGES

ANCHORAGE--With state officials changing the wording of a ballot
measure on choosing U.S. Senate replacements, sponsors of two other
initiatives said biased language on their measures should be changed
also.

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Morgan Christen on Wednesday ordered
the state to change the ballot after ruling that the summary of an
initiative to remove the governor's power to make temporary
appointments to U.S. Senate vacancies was inaccurate and biased.

Lt. Gov. Loren Leman said he would comply with the
order.

Sponsors for the two other citizen initiatives on the November ballot,
one to outlaw bear baiting and the other to decriminalize marijuana,
said they too were unfairly treated on the ballot by Leman.

Both agreed their concerns were not as serious as Trust the People,
the group backing the Senate replacement measure, but with the ballots
being reprinted anyway they sought to have their statements changed.

Leman, the state's chief elections official, told the Anchorage Daily
News on Thursday that he would not consider other changes.

Like Trust the People, Yes on 2 and Citizens United Against Bear
Baiting said they were not informed when Leman wrote new ballot
language rather than use the wording that had been used on their petitions.

In her decision Wednesday, Christen noted that the Division of
Elections Web site says that the same language would be used on the
ballot as appeared on the petitions. And in court, an assistant
attorney general who advises Leman said that previous lieutenant
governors routinely alerted ballot sponsors when the ballot language
was altered, though she said such notice is not required by law.

"They changed the language but we didn't know about it in enough time
to object," said Ken Jacobus, attorney for Yes on 2, the
decriminalization measure.

Jacobus objected to the mention of children in the third sentence on
the ballot: "It removes all existing state restrictions on
prescription of marijuana by a doctor for all patients, including children."

"Medical marijuana isn't prescribed for kids," Jacobus said. "And the
initiative allows municipalities to prohibit marijuana use by people
under 21."

Proponents of Ballot Measure No. 3, which would ban bear baiting, also
requested new ballot wording. They contend that Leman's office subtly
but critically altered language they had negotiated with the
Department of Law, "rendering (the) summary an unfair and biased
misstatement."

Attorney Tom Meachum said two changes in the ballot language could
mislead voters into thinking they could be jailed for a year and fined
$10,000 if a bear happened onto their bird feeder and they
photographed it.

The ballot currently says it would be illegal to use any item or
substance, including food, "to entice a bear." The original version
said "intentionally entice," and the ballot should be reprinted to
include the missing word, Meachum said.

He also disputed inclusion of specific monetary and jail penalties on
the ballot, which he called a scare tactic. The penalties are no
different from most other wildlife offenses, he said.

On Thursday, the group asked Leman to replace the ballot wording with
the same language assistant attorney general Marjorie Vandor approved
in June, and which was used to gather some 30,000 signatures needed to
put the measure on the ballot. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake