A petition aimed at splitting the huge Las Vegas-area school district into smaller entities was signed by enough voters in at least 13 of 17 Nevada counties, the secretary of state said Thursday.
The ''raw count'' of signatures, which must be reviewed by each county clerk to ensure they're valid, totaled 60,027. Petitioners needed at least 44,009 signatures, including 10 percent of the number of people who voted in the previous general election in 13 counties.
Clerks now move on to the verification stage. The results of that process will be reported to the secretary of state by Nov. 9.
Petition gatherers had their greatest success in Clark County, encompassing Las Vegas, where 53,168 signatures were collected. About half of those, or 25,760, must be found to be valid.
The petition also succeeded in Churchill, Esmeralda, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander, Lincoln, Lyon, Mineral, Nye, Pershing, Storey and White Pine counties.
Assemblywoman Sandra Tiffany, R-Henderson, who led the petition drive, said she's confident the measure will qualify for consideration by the 2001 Legislature.
If the petition is declared valid by the secretary of state, the Legislature must act on the proposal next year. If it isn't passed by lawmakers, the measure will go to the 2002 ballot for consideration by Nevada voters.
