"The process is a hard one, it really is, if the addresses don't match up," she said. "It's still questionable." Some names with addresses not in the system were rejected, Zollinger said, because they were shared by several voters.

Requiring petition signers to give their birthdate would help sort out the confusion, she said.

Kim Jackson, Utah County's clerk auditor, also questioned the process.

"The Supreme Court has said you can't disqualify a name just because the address doesn't match," he said. "Am I totally comfortable with that interpretation? No, but without another system or way of checking, we have to count it."

Naccarato said lawmakers are already beginning a review of initiative process, and requiring a birthdate has already been raised. Attorneys on both sides of the issue argued before the high court that such additional information would make the process more accurate.

---

Contributing: Sharon Haddock; E-mail: lisa@desnews.com