The Honolulu city clerk plans to decide in about two weeks whether Stop Rail Now can place an anti-rail question on the November ballot.

Stop Rail Now officially filed its petition, which includes about 49,000 signatures, on Thursday. It initially tried to file the petition on Aug. 4, but was rejected after the city clerk said the petition was delivered too late for the November election. The group subsequently sued the city, and last Thursday, Circuit Judge Karl Sakamoto ordered the city clerk to process the petition.

Sakamoto's ruling was a major victory for anti-rail groups. However, Stop Rail Now may face more legal hurdles.

That's because there still may be a dispute over how many signatures Stop Rail Now needs to get on the November ballot. In addition, it was unclear whether the clerk still had to verify all petition signatures by an original Sept. 3 deadline.

City Clerk Denise De Costa yesterday said she plans to have all petition signatures verified by Sept. 3. At the same time, De Costa reiterated the group will need valid signatures of at least 44,525 registered voters in order to put the issue on the general election ballot.

"We want to have it done, hopefully by September 3rd," De Costa said. "We're just going to work real hard to get it done on the earlier deadline just to be safe.

"We hope there are enough signatures, (but) we don't know for sure because we don't have a complete accounting."

Stop Rail Now acknowledges that it may not have 44,525 valid signatures. However, the group claims it only needs about 30,000 valid signatures, according to its interpretation of the city Charter.

If the city insists on having 44,525 valid signatures, "that's going to put us right back into court," Stop Rail Now attorney Earle Partington said yesterday. "I'm trying to decide when and how to get us back into court so the judge can address things."

The Stop Rail Now proposed ballot issue reads: "Honolulu mass transit shall not include trains or rail." Stop Rail Now favors alternatives to rail, such an elevated, high-occupancy highway.

Separately, the council is scheduled to vote tomorrow on whether to put its own rail question on the ballot via a proposed Charter amendment. That question would ask whether the city shall "establish a steel wheel on steel rail transit system."

The council also is considering a separate Charter amendment authorizing the creation of a public transit authority, which would oversee design, construction and operation of the commuter rail that would link East Kapolei to Ala Moana.

If the Charter amendment is placed on the ballot and voters approve it, Stop Rail Now's petition could become irrelevant because a voter-based ballot initiative cannot override the city Charter.

De Costa said she hopes the council puts the rail question on the ballot.

"I'm just pleased that the council is hopefully going to take up the issue and maybe pass something to facilitate putting the question on the ballot," she said. "Whichever way it gets on, it's important that voters have some kind of involvement."

Mayor Mufi Hannemann hopes to start construction on the 20-mile elevated commuter rail project in late 2009 or early 2010. The project is expected to cost an inflation-adjusted $5 billion and take nearly a decade to complete all phases.