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Lt. Gov. Loren Leman notified initiative sponsors in late November that the petition has the 28,782 signatures necessary to get the question on the 2004 ballot.

Sponsors must collect signatures equal to 10 percent of those who voted in the most recent general election.

"We have enough signatures," said initiative sponsor Linda Ronan of Anchorage. "The problem is that it hasn't been certified. We don't know what the holdup is."

Annette Kreitzer, Leman's chief of staff, said she expects the initiative to be certified within the next two weeks.

Sponsors of the initiative have grown accustomed to delays.

On Jan. 13, 2003, Leman rejected 194 of 484 signature booklets over what Anchorage Superior Court Judge John Suddock described as "trivial rule violations."

Following a lawsuit from the initiative sponsors, Leman was ordered in September to recount the signature booklets.

Tom Godkin, an administrative supervisor for the Division of Elections, said the division has not yet completed the total count of the petition booklets but confirmed that the group has more than enough valid signatures.

Ronan said the initiative sponsors and backers plan to begin a public relations campaign next year to build support for the proposed new law.