Chief petitioners of a labor-endorsed petition to build a privately-operated casino in Wood Village filed a lawsuit after the Elections Division determined that the initiative lacked enough valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot.

According to Secretary of State Kate Brown, the amendment failed to obtain the required 110,358 valid signatures for a constitutional amendment. Backers turned in 172,136 raw signatures. Of those, only 60.78 percent — or 104,629 — were determined to be from registered Oregon voters.

The announcement stunned officials from the Columbia Pacific Building and Construction Trades Council. Developers of the $250 million-plus entertainment center/casino to be built at a shuttered dog track in Wood Village signed a project labor agreement with the council, guaranteeing it would be union built. In turn, affiliated construction locals helped collect signatures.

“Obviously, this is a huge disappointment for the building trades,” said John Mohlis, executive secretary of the building trades council. “The construction industry is in desperate need for work, and this would have helped.”

Matt Rossman, co-chief petitioner, said the secretary of state’s determination is wrong.

The campaign’s signature gathering firm — Democracy Resources of Portland — evaluated 35,000 of the signatures submitted and found a validity rate far above the number needed to qualify for the ballot, Rossman said. The Elections Division evaluated 8,500 signatures and found one of the lowest validity rates in a decade — 60.78 percent. The Oregonian reported the average validity rate since 2000 has been 73 percent.

The petitioners’ goal, with a budget of $1.2 million, was to collect 160,000 signatures.

“Our signature gathering firm has the best validity record in the business,” Rossman said. “Therefore, we think the secretary has made mistakes in checking signatures. We’ve asked the secretary for the rejected signatures and access to the signatures on file so we can evaluate whether the secretary made the mistakes we’re sure she made. If the secretary cooperates, we won’t need to continue the lawsuit.”

At a July 30 hearing, Marion County Circuit Court Judge Paul Lipscomb denied the petitioners’ request for an injunction to block the secretary of state’s certification, which became official Aug. 1. However, he did agree to hear arguments disputing the results on Aug. 20. That hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. at the Marion County Courthouse.

A companion statutory measure to site a casino in Wood Village did qualify for the ballot. That initiative — which required 82,769 signatures (petitioners submitted 136,938 raw signatures) — detailed how much would be spent initially to build the casino and entertainment center ($250 million) and where some of the profits would go. The statutory initiative authorized 25 percent of adjusted gross gaming revenues — estimated at more than $100 million a year — be dedicated to K-12 education and other public services.

Both initiatives needed voter approval in order for the project to move forward. But because the statutory initiative did qualify, Oregonians will still have a vote on the entertainment center.