Voters will have to decide on at least 11 ballot measures in November
Latest initiative deals with redistricting

Secretary of State Debra Bowen last week certified the 11th initiative for the Nov. 4 General Election ballot.

The latest measure would create a redistricting commission to draw new district lines for some elective offices.

The first 10 propositions to qualify for the November ballot were a high-speed rail bond, a measure relating to the treatment of farm animals, a children's hospital bond, a parental notification for abortion measure, a measure involving the sentencing of nonviolent offenders, a measure regarding increased criminal penalties and public safety funding, a measure creating renewable energy generation requirements for utilities, a measure that would amend the state constitution to define marriage as "between a man and a woman," a measure involving victims' rights in the criminal justice system, and a bond measure for alternative fuel vehicles and renewable energy.

To qualify for the ballot, the redistricting measure needed 694,354 valid petition signatures, which is equal to 8 percent of the total votes cast for governor in the November 2006 General Election.

Proponents of the initiative submitted 1.18 million signatures in an attempt to qualify the measure, and it passed the random-sample signature check.

County elections officials have 30 working days to verify the validity of the signatures filed with their offices using a random sampling method.

The state elections code requires elections officials to verify 500 signatures, or 3 percent of the number of signatures filed in their county, whichever is greater.

Counties receiving fewer than 500 petition signatures are required to verify all the signatures.

A measure can qualify via random sampling, without further verification, if the sampling projects a number of valid signatures greater than 110 percent of the required number.

The latest measure needed at least 763,790 projected valid signatures to qualify by random sampling, and it exceeded that threshold with 779,291 projected valid signatures.