Pubdate: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 Source: Denver Post (CO) Copyright: 1998 The Denver Post Contact: http://www.denverpost.com/ Author: Howard Pankratz JUDGE TURNS BACK PRO-POT GROUP Oct. 29 - Supporters of the medical marijuana initiative failed Wednesday in another 11th hour attempt to have votes for the controversial measure tallied. Judge Connie Peterson, ruling on a request identical to another the supporters currently have before the Colorado Supreme Court, refused to order the Secretary of State to tell the state's 63 county clerks to tally the votes cast for and against Amendment 19. "It is unfortunate Amendment 19 is in such a mess," said Peterson, who is chief judge of the Denver District Court. "Certainly confusion could have been avoided." But she said that she was denying the motion primarily because the Supreme Court has an identical motion before it and because the marijuana supporters have not shown "irreparable injury" would occur should the votes not be tallied. Peterson acknowledged that the supporters had shown injury in the form of time and money spent on the issue, but emphasized that they still may be able to have the issue voted on in two years by Colorado voters. If the measure isn't tallied this year, but a later review shows it should have been on the 1998 ballot, it will be on the ballot in the year 2000, said Peterson. And she added that the Supreme Court, which was first presented with the issue on Friday, may yet rule whether county clerks have to tally the votes. After Peterson's ruling, one of the biggest supporters of the initiative said that Coloradans for Medical Rights, which sponsored the amendment, is broke. Martin Chilcutt added that he foresees no infusion of money into its campaign before the Nov. 3 election. Legal wrangling has beset the initiative in recent months. And on Wednesday the Amendment 19 supporters went before Peterson claiming that Secretary of State Vikki Buckley incorrectly found on Oct. 16 that the supporters had not gathered enough valid petition signatures. Buckley made the finding after the Colorado Supreme Court ordered her to do a line-by-line analysis of the 88,815 signatures submitted to her by Coloradans for Medical Rights. In ordering Buckley to make the analysis, the court said that "if and only if" the analysis showed sufficient valid signatures could the Amendment 19 votes be tallied. But the marijuana supporters, claiming that Buckley failed to make an accurate count, told Peterson that their own analysis showed Buckley had invalidated 2,628 signatures that were, in fact, valid. As a result, said lawyer Mark Grueskin, there were 290 signatures more than constitutionally required to place the measure before voters. - --- Checked-by: Patrick Henry