The Nevada Secretary of State's office Wednesday denied Recalls R Us' appeal of its decision to strike 76 names from a recall petition on Nye County District 4 Commissioner Butch Borasky.

That ruling leaves the petitions with an insufficient number of signatures.

A hearing set for 9 a.m. Friday, in 5th District Court on Borasky's challenge of his recall was pulled from the court calendar.

The secretary of state's office had validated 714 signatures on the petition, or more than the 652 signatures needed. That, however, was before 86 people submitted letters asking for their signatures to be deleted, of which 76 were legally qualified to sign the petition.

The striking of 76 names from the recall petition reduced the total to 638 signatures.

Recalls R Us said Nevada statutes require people wanting to remove their signatures to demonstrate good cause. It argued 45 of the 76 requests were insufficient based on misrepresentations made to the person requesting their names be deleted, insufficient information received by those people, and coercion to induce the signer to request their removal.

In the decision to allow the 76 residents of District 4 to remove their names from the recall petition, signed by Nevada Deputy Secretary of State for Elections Matt Griffin, he used direct quotes from an Oct. 26, 2000, Nevada Supreme Court decision in the case of Citizens for Honest and Responsible Government v. Heller.

"The court had noted that the right of removal clearly gives the electorate greater flexibility and voice in the exercise of its recall right. This procedure helps avoid unnecessary special elections and provides direct recourse for when signatures are improperly obtained despite the existing safeguards."

Griffin said his office concluded all 76 requests to remove signatures satisfied the statutory requirements.

"The allegations of fraud and coercion in this appeal are matters more properly determined by a district court," Griffin wrote.

The previous case he referenced against former Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller was filed after the secretary of state's office tossed out a recall petition against former Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates.

The citizen group said the 60-day limit for circulating a recall petition, the provision allowing signers of the recall petition to later remove their names, and using a random sample of 500 signatures all violated the state constitution.

The petitioners argued allowing people who signed the recall petition to later remove their signatures hinders rather than aids the recall right. They said the signature removals aren't necessary as voters could change their minds when the recall election is held.

The court also found the statistical sampling in the Gates recall was within 0.25 percent of the actual number of verified signatures, an indication of the reliability of the procedure.

"I was expecting it," Butch Clendenen, chairman of Recalls R Us, said.

Clendenen said his organization will appeal the decision to the 1st District Court in Carson City. He expects it to review the case quickly.

"It says there must be a valid reason. Is a lie and incorrect information a valid reason? The court will make that decision," Clendenen said.

He said the lies told to people to convince them to remove their signatures is that the recall election will cost $30,000 and the fact Borasky will be up for re-election anyway in November, failing to mention the election date is in 2010.

Right now Clendenen said he's more upset about the process than Borasky's job as a commissioner.

"If this stands up, it cuts the right of all the people out. Everybody loses if we lose this," Clendenen said.

Borasky was unavailable for comment by presstime.