Salt Lake Tribune
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Petition recount nearing the end
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2004, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

A county clerk ordered to re-examine signatures that were discounted and kept the Open Space initiative off the Nov. 2 ballot said the re-examination process would be done within a week.

''We re going to go back through and look at the petition again and see if we can come up with enough names to certify it in District 14,'' Utah County Clerk Kim Jackson said Monday.

Petitions for the initiative were rejected in both Utah and Cache counties because both county clerks threw out names when they didn't match or couldn't be verified against addresses.

''The lack of an address match, standing alone, should not be grounds for rejection of the signature of a voter whose name appears on the voter list,'' the Utah Supreme Court wrote Friday in ordering the names back for re-examination.

Utah and Cache counties are to resubmit the petitions to the state elections office for approval and placement on the Nov. 2 ballot, if warranted.

''We're within 40 signatures of certifying in that Senate district,'' Jackson said. ''Under new clarifications, we think we'll come up with those names.''

He said that re-examination should be done by Monday. The state has said its deadline to include the initiative on ballots would be Sept. 3.

Cache County Clerk Jill Zollinger did not return phone calls left Friday and Monday at her office.

Amanda Smith, president of Utahns for Clean Water, Clean Air & Quality Growth, said the petition was short 221 signatures in Cache County. She said the group found that Cache County invalidated 646 signatures because of address differences.

Smith's group is seeking a 10-year, $150 million bond for conservation projects. The Elections Office rejected the plan in early June, ruling that the petition failed to meet state standards.

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