Opinion ID: 2621965
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: NRS 295.056(3)'s legislative history

Text: In addition to Article 19, Section 2(4)'s legislative history, which suggests that Section 2(4)'s 90-day deadline is firm, amendments to NRS 295.056(3) similarly reveal that the Legislature treated the 90-day deadline as fixed. Specifically, in 1985, the Legislature amended NRS 295.056(3) to create a submission deadline not less than 155 days before the general election. [32] Generally, this meant that the submission deadline would occur in early June during an election year. Then, in 1993, Senate Bill 552 amended NRS 295.056(3) to require that initiative petitions be submitted not later than the third Tuesday in June. [33] In support of S.B. 552, the Secretary of State's office had requested that the 65 days it originally asked for be trimmed to 45 days, which would set a July submission date, rather than June, because it believed that the county clerks had too much time to verify signatures. [34] Under Article 19, Section 3(2), this was a valid amendment because whether the submission deadline fell in July as the Secretary of State had requested, or on the third Tuesday in June as the Legislature enacted, the deadline fell within the 65-day block of time, immediately preceding the 90-day filing deadline, to verify signatures. NRS 295.056(3)'s legislative history shows that the Legislature has either set the submission deadline at, or within, 65 days from the filing deadline. Thus, the Legislature's argument that the phrase not less than 90 days in Article 19, Section 2(4) is flexible is belied by the legislative history that shows that the Legislature itself did not intend the filing deadline to be flexible. The only flexibility that exists, under Article 19, Section 3(2), is the movement of the signature verification process within a 65-day period of time from the 90-day filing deadline. Thus, the Legislature may not set the submission deadline any earlier than 155 days from a general election.