Legalization Measure Short By 2,400 Signatures; Has 15 More Days

In a near-miss, the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act has fallen 2,409 signatures short of winning approval for the ballot from the Colorado Secretary of State's Office. But the good news is, supporters still have 15 more days to reach the number of valid signatures needed.

RMLA submitted 163,632 signatures, reports Michael Roberts at Westword, almost twice as manyas the 86,105 required to make the ballot. But a shocking 79,936 of the signatures were deemed invalid by Secretary of State Scott Gessler's office, leaving only 83,696 that were considered acceptable.

"Today's news is unexpected, but it is really just a very small bump in the road on our journey to end the irrational policy of marijuana prohibition in the state," RMLA backer Mason Tvert told Westword. "Fortunately, we started this signature drive in 2011, so that we would have the opportunity to cure any shortfall in our count.

"We now have 15 days to collect approximately 3,000 valid signatures," Tvert said.

"Given that we were able to collect an average of 3,000 valid signatures per week during the first six months, we are confident we will complete this process successfully and quality the initiative for the ballot," Tvert said.

Tvert called the signature shortfall a "bump in the road."