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PHOENIX — A judge on Thursday blocked state and county officials from printing ballots and publicity pamphlets until he rules whether another initiative will be on the ballot -- a move which could delay the start of early voting for the general election.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Edward Burke said backers of Proposition 104 are entitled to make their case to him that their measure was illegally kicked off the November ballot. Initiative supporters said county recorders improperly declared the signatures of some petitions signers to be invalid.

Kevin Tyne, deputy secretary of state, said the publicity pamphlets which contain the description of all the ballot measures was sent to the printer earlier this week -- without Proposition 104. Tyne said if Burke does not lift his order -- and soon -- there is no way for his office to meet its obligation to mail one of these to the home of every registered voter before the early ballots for the general election are sent out on Oct. 2.

And Tyne pointed out that state law requires those pamphlets be in the hands of voters before they get those early ballots. What that could mean, he said, is having to ask Burke's permission to let counties ignore that early voting deadline.

The pamphlets aren't the only problem.

Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne said the back side of ballots -- the side with the initiatives -- was supposed to go to the printer on Thursday. She said with that deadline now blown, it may not be possible to print the front side -- the side with the candidates who survive Tuesday's primary -- in time for that Oct. 2 mailing.

Proposition 104 would ban state or local governments or schools from giving any preferences to anyone in employment, education or contracting based on their sex, race, ethnicity, color or national origin. Initiative organizer Ward Connerly said these special programs are a form of discrimination.

But county recorders said a random check of the nearly 335,000 signatures submitted concluded not enough of them were valid to qualify for the ballot. Burke is being asked to let initiative backers prove otherwise.

Max McPhail, director of the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative, said he does not believe the county recorders are trying to purposely keep Proposition 104 off the ballot. He said they're just overworked with all the names that have to be checked, even if that's only a 5 percent sample.

"The county has basically a month to verify nine initiatives,'' he said, getting up to 14,000 signatures on each one. And McPhail said any names initially thrown out are supposed to be checked two more times before officially being ruled invalid.

"They have people working round the clock,'' he said.

"They have to move fast, they're under a deadline.'' McPhail continued. "And things are missed.''