Idaho Judge Rules Cannabis Petition Signatures Delivered 5 Minutes Late Can’t Be Counted

An Idaho judge blocked the counting of signatures for a citizen-driven medical cannabis initiative submitted minutes late to the county clerk. Idaho Capital Sun reports. Judge W. Reed Cotten, in his June 18 ruling, rejected the Natural Medicine Alliance’s claims that the Minidoka County Clerk’s Office was open at 5:05 p.m. — when a contractor arrived to deliver the petition signatures.

Days after the contractor gave up the set of signatures, Minidoka County Clerk Tonya Page ruled that the 900 signatures would not be counted, despite the employee accepting them, because they were late. Jeremy Chou, an attorney for the Natural Medicine Alliance asked Page to reconsider, asserting that the contractor showed up at the office minutes before the office closed — not five minutes after. In her letter to Chou, Page disagreed, stating that security camera footage “clearly” showed the contractor arrived five minutes late.

In the ruling, Cotten explained that at 5:05 p.m. an employee of the county clerk’s office opened the front door and told the contractor the office was closed and locked the door. Another employee, who was leaving for the day, answered the door and, according to Cotten, “Fearful of escalating a potentially contentious situation and wanting to resolve the matter as quickly as possible, this employee agreed to receive the petitions but informed the contractor that the petitions would still be late.”

Page told the Sun that the office has “never had this problem before” with ballot signatures and that typically signatures flow, not in large groups.

Despite missing 900 signatures, Amanda Watson, a spokeswoman for the Idaho Natural Medicine Alliance, told the Sun that the organization “received a very significant number of signatures over the required amount” and is “confident” the question will appear on the November ballot.

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