According to the court, the signatures in question were not of officially registered voters. Some people registered to vote at the same time they signed the petition, but the law states that petition signers are not considered registered voters until their registrations are received and recorded by their counties' election departments.

"This requirement does not restrict speech," Judges Thomas Nelson and Andrew Kleinfeld wrote for the court. "What it restricts is the power of persons not registered to vote to change the laws passed by the voters' duly elected representatives."

The ruling could put an end to a ballot initiative that sought to legalize small amounts of marijuana. "We haven't exhausted our legal options, but this puts the initiative in great peril," said Jennifer Knight, spokeswoman for the initiative group, the Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana.

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