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

An Idaho judge prevented signatures for the citizen-led medical cannabis initiative submitted minutes late to a county clerk from being counted, the Idaho Capital Sun reports. Judge W. Reed Cotten, in his June 18 ruling, rejected claims by the Natural Medicine Alliance that the Minidoka County Clerk’s Office was open at 5:05 p.m. – when a contractor arrived to submit their batch of petition signatures. 

Days after the contractor dropped off the signature batch, Minidoka County Clerk Tonya Page decided the 900 signatures would not be counted, despite the employee accepting them, because they were late. Jeremy Chou, an attorney for Natural Medicine Alliance asked Page to reconsider, asserting that the contractor had shown up to the office a few minutes before the office was set to close – not five minutes after. In her letter to Chou, Page declined, 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 unlocked and opened the front door and told the contractor that the office was closed and shut the door. Another employee, who was leaving for the day, opened the door and, according to Cotten “Fearing escalating a potentially contentious situation and seeking to resolve the matter as quickly as possible, this employee agreed to take the petitions, but informed the contractor that the petitions will still be late.” 

Page told the Sun that the office had “never had this issue before” regarding ballot signatures and that usually signatures trickle in, not come in large batches. 

Despite the loss of the 900 signatures, Amanda Watson, a spokesperson for the Natural Medicine Alliance of Idaho, told the Sun the organization “got a very significant number of signatures over the required amount” and are “confident” the question would appear on November ballots.