Several Pahrump residents contacted by the Pahrump Valley Times confirmed they were contacted recently by an investigator to verify whether they actually signed a recall petition against Nye County Commissioner Peter Liakopoulos.

Nevada Assistant Secretary of State for Elections Matt Griffin confirmed an investigation is under way. An affidavit has been received from a Pahrump resident alleging she never signed the petition.

Betty Atkins said she received a phone call from someone two weeks ago. When asked what the investigator wanted to know, Atkins said, "If I signed it."

"I signed two petitions and they said one of them didn't look like my signature," Atkins said.

Atkins didn't think the investigation would go anywhere. She also questioned why the state was spending the money to investigate the signatures when the recall effort failed anyway.

"I think they're looking for something. They're fishing for something," she said. "They were going to come to my home. I haven't heard anything. It's been two weeks."

Barbara Harrington said she was contacted by telephone a week and a half ago. She confirmed signing the petition.

"They just wanted to know when I signed and where I signed it. A lot of that I don't honestly remember," Harrington said.

Philip Ashworth said he was told there was some skepticism that some people whose names appeared on the recall petition actually signed it.

"They wanted to show me some signatures and verify they were mine," Ashworth said.

In his case, someone had stopped by personally to interview him, but he wasn't home.

"Someone apparently came by because they left a card in the door," Ashworth said.

Liakpoulos filed a challenge to the recall petition, which contained 759 raw signatures. Organizers needed at least 670 valid signatures, one-fourth of the number of voters in county commission District 5 in the November 2006 election.

Griffin verified the recall attempt came up short Jan. 15. He declared there were only 341 valid signatures out of a sample of 500 signatures checked, 68 percent of the total.

Organizers of the recall petition didn't want to pay to challenge the secretary of state's findings.

Liakopoulos mentioned 12 pages of the petition contained signatures that were strikingly similar. He asked the secretary of state's office to pursue charges of forgery, perjury, filing false documents and conspiracy against those circulating the petition.

"There has been contact with handwriting analysts. As part of the investigation we worked in conjunction with other agencies for help with any other resources that might be helpful," Griffin said.

Griffin expects the investigation could be wrapped up in the next couple weeks. The results would be handed over to the attorney general's office.

"We're conducting the investigation but the attorney general's office is the prosecutorial body," Griffin said. "As the prosecutors, they have the ultimate view of whether they find the charges sound and to be of merit."

Griffin indicated the secretary of state's office was taking a tougher stance on fraudulent recall petitions.

"There are specific, criminal provisions in the recall provision," he said. "The legislature said this is not to be used lightly."

The last successful such petition in Nye County was filed against former Nye County Administrator Bob "Red" Dyer, who was recalled in a January 2000 election. No criminal action was taken against organizers of past recall efforts filed under questionable circumstances by former Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller.

Also during January 2000, 5th District Judge John Davis tossed out a recall petition filed against former Nye County Sheriff Wade Lieseke, after 1,100 of the 2,761 signatures were signed "John Doe." Recall organizers claimed some people signed their names John Doe for fear of recrimination by the sheriff's department. Tom Hannah admitted in court he and his wife signed 100 of the John Doe signatures themselves.

Lieseke filed a defamation suit against recall petitioners Hannah, Marilee Botos and Cora Jean Clements that helped quell the recall effort.

Last year, Jim Petell turned in only three signatures on a recall petition against Commissioner Gary Hollis. State statute requires organizers of a recall petition to turn in all the signatures.

The Nevada Secretary of State Web site states it is now interpreting the recall statute to require that people who sign the petitions must have actually voted in the election in question

Griffin said there was some confusion among county clerks about who was eligible to sign.