The Nevada Secretary of State's office has decided not to pursue forgery charges against circulators of a recall petition against Nye County Commissioner Peter Liakopoulos.

"We ended up not forwarding it to the attorney general and closing the investigation last week," said Matt Griffin, Nevada deputy secretary of state for elections.

Griffin said investigators determined with "a reasonable degree of certainty" signatures were affixed to the petition by people who didn't sign it.

"The legal requirements as they are now, prevented us from being able to determine who perpetrated the act. So we essentially can't determine who put the signatures on there," he said.

While the secretary of state's office had two investigators in Pahrump, interviewing people whose names were on the petition suspected of being forgeries, the attorney general's office would have to prosecute, the decision means it would be difficult for anybody to file charges, since a defense attorney could cite the secretary of state's advice.

Five people circulated the recall petition: Earline Heard, Harley Kulkin, Patricia Garlough, David Wood and Elliott Brainerd.

Those circulating the petition signed an affidavit verifying under oath they personally circulated the petition, that all signatures were affixed in their presence and they believe them to be genuine signatures.

Organizers failed to gain the signatures of one-fourth of the voters in the November 2006 election in which Liakopoulos won his county commission seat, that are necessary to force a special recall election.

The secretary of state's office analyzed 500 signatures out of 772 that were submitted and found only 341 valid signatures, or 68 percent of the signatures analyzed.

Recall organizers needed at least 670 total signatures to put the recall proposal on the ballot.

"Forgery's always tough to prove, no matter what the context is. But in this situation the burden is so high we couldn't narrow it down to the extent we could say, 'This person did it,'" Griffin said.

During a previous interview in January, Griffin noted the Nevada Legislature recently increased the penalty for fraudulent circulation of a recall petition from a misdemeanor to a felony.

Liakopoulos submitted affidavits containing the names of two residents whose names were on the petition, but who swore under oath they didn't sign it.

Several people contacted by the Pahrump Valley Times, whose names were on the recall petition, confirmed they were contacted by an investigator for the secretary of state's office.

One Pahrump resident whose name appeared on the petition, Ray Elgin, told the Pahrump Valley Times he never signed it. Elgin is an individual active with local 4-H clubs, raises goats and normally stays out of politics.

Griffin said numerous people whose names were on the petition told investigators they never signed it, though he couldn't provide an exact count during a telephone interview Monday.