A superior court judge is siding with the Maine Secretary of State over a ballot initiative concerning transgender athletes.

The measure would ban transgender athletes from girls’ sports and require students to use bathrooms and locker rooms according to the sex listed on their birth certificate.

According to the Portland Press Herald, a superior court judge said Thursday that Secretary of State Shenna Bellows was correct to reject nearly 4,000 signatures that were gathered by petitioners.

That brought the petition about 500 signatures short of the number required for it to appear on the state ballot in November.

The removal came after a lawsuit claiming that some out-of-state circulators had forged signatures and left the petition unattended at polling places.

The decision can still be appealed to the Maine Supreme Court, but a final decision will need to be made by Aug. 1 before ballots are laid out and printed for the November election.