The three initiatives call for limiting the use of eminent domain in development, restricting the height of buildings in the downtown area to 46 feet and requiring voter approval for all redevelopment projects.

But the Friends of Sunnyvale, a community organization that has protested the proposed high-density buildings in the city's downtown plan, are working hard to reverse the registrar's decision.

The numbers just don't match up, said Melinda Hamilton, president of the local group.

On behalf of the Friends of Sunnyvale, Hamilton filed a lawsuit against the city and the Registrar of Voters, charging unlawful withholding of petition signatures and information by the city and improper handling of the results of the verification samples by the registrar.

The Friends of Sunnyvale filed the petitions in April, with more than 6,300 signatures for each initiative. The county only requires 5,432 valid signatures for an initiative to qualify for the November ballot.

The city removed several hundred signatures and then forwarded the petitions to the registrar.

According to Hamilton, the city removed the signatures because some of the precinct walkers who passed out the petitions simply didn't fill out their complete address at the bottom of each page.

"Because the person didn't include the city and state, the city bounced those pages," Hamilton said. She said many of the precinct walkers assumed that the city would know that the precinct walkers lived in Sunnyvale.

"We believe the city is withholding the signatures because there are people in city hall who are afraid to let the voters in Sunnyvale have a say in their downtown," said Hamilton.

Following election code, the registrar of voters took a sample of the submitted signatures and determined that the initiatives had failed because there were not enough verified registered voters in the sample.

But after reading the results, the Friends of Sunnyvale believe the registrar mishandled the results of the verification sample and that there are enough signatures.

"We believe that we've complied with the elections code and the administrative code," said Lisa Herrick, deputy county counsel for the registrar.

Hamilton hopes also that the lawsuit will force the city to produce under the California Public Records Act documents pertaining to the city's decision to withhold signatures from the petitions.

Hamilton said she requested the documents in writing, but she was told no such documents exist.

There will be a hearing on June 23 at the U.S. district court in San Jose.

But time is running short, said Hamilton. "We need to know by the first week of August or these initiatives won't make it on the ballot," she said.

City officials did not respond to The Sun's questions by presstime.