Opinion ID: 2621965
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 14

Heading: Creation of Article 19, Section 3(2)

Text: As it relates to Article 19, Section 3(2), We the People argues that the legislative history of this constitutional provision illustrates that the Legislature has only limited authority to establish the submission deadline. Specifically, Section 3(2) states that a signature verification submission deadline cannot occur more than 65 days earlier than any other deadline set forth in Article 19. In 1985, the Legislature amended NRS 295.056(3) to create a submission deadline not less than 155 days before a general election, which took effect immediately. [45] At the time, the Secretary of State pointed out that a constitutional amendment was necessary and requested, among other things, that the Legislature provide an additional 65 days for signature verification in addition to the constitutional provisions. [46] In support of the request, the Secretary of State submitted a timeline denoting the various deadlines required by the constitution. [47] The timeline showed that the filing date for initiatives proposing to amend the constitution is 90 days before the general election. It also depicted the proposed signature verification process as a block of 65 days immediately preceding the 90-day filing deadline. Following the Secretary of State's request, the Legislature drafted Article 19, Section 3(2)'s language to permit the Legislature to require that initiatives be submitted for preliminary signature verification no more than 65 days earlier than is otherwise required by this article. [48] The constitutional amendment was passed by the Legislature in 1985 and 1987 and approved by the voters in 1988. [49] Thus, when the Legislature set the submission deadline at 155 days before a general election, under the 1985 version of NRS 295.056(3), and then Article 19, Section 3(2) was added to the constitution in 1988, the Legislature intended that the earliest the submission deadline could be set is 155 days before an election (90 days under Article 19, Section 2(4) plus 65 days under Article 19, Section 3(2)). [50] In light of the legislative history and considering the constitutional scheme as a whole, we conclude that Article 19, Section 2(4) establishes a fixed filing deadline 90 days before the general election. The filing deadline in Section 2(4) was twice moved earlier into the year to give the Secretary of State additional time to prepare ballots. And when Nevada's Constitution was amended to include Section 3(2), the Legislature specifically stated that an additional 65 days, but not more than that, may be added to the filing deadline to complete signature verification. This constitutional amendment was effectuated to coincide with NRS 295.056(3)'s 1985 version, which set the submission deadline at 155 days before the general election. Accordingly, the Legislature did not intend the phrase not less than 90 days in Article 19, Section 2(4) to be flexible, and the earliest that the Legislature may set the submission deadline is 155 days before the general election. Thus, the current version of NRS 295.056(3), which sets the submission deadline 167 days before a general election, is unconstitutional.