On May 11, the group “Fight for Nevada,” which led an initiative to recall first-term Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak, made a last-minute filing in Federal Court seeking more time to gather signatures beyond the initial May 14 deadline.
The group fell more than 200,000 signatures short of the number needed to qualify the petition for the ballot in November. Judge Richard Boulware denied the request, effectively terminating the effort.
Fight for Nevada had requested an additional three months to gather signatures, claiming the governor’s lockdown of the state had hampered their ability to gather signatures.
The group’s filing stated they were seeking “an extension of the May 14 deadline by a number of days equal to the duration of the State of Emergency declared on March 12, 2020.”
On April 2, Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske confirmed that she would not extend any deadlines for submitting petitions for the recall of a public officer because she believed that she lacked the legal authority to do so.
As of Wednesday evening, the Secretary of State’s office had confirmed a statewide raw count of signatures gathered by the effort from all 17 county registrars offices. Fight For Nevada submitted 33,105 signatures, but at least 243,995 were needed to proceed to the next step in the process, signature verification.
The group could begin the initiative again at any time if it wished to file a new notice of intent with the Secretary of State’s office. It’s unclear whether or not that will happen.
As of publication time, Fight for Nevada organizers had not responded to multiple requests for comment from This is Reno.
Fight for Nevada and the recall initiative effort have featured prominently in the “Reopen Nevada” protests and movements in recent weeks.
These protests have taken place in Reno, Carson City and Las Vegas, with sizable attendance and participants often in close proximity to one another and not wearing any personal protective equipment.
