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PHOENIX — A judge on Thursday blocked state and county officials from sending out ballots and publicity pamphlets until he rules whether an initiative outlawing affirmative action programs will be on the ballot — a move that could delay the start of early voting for the general election.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Edward Burke said Thursday that backers of Proposition 104 are entitled to make their case to him that their measure was illegally kicked off the November ballot.

Proposition 104 would ban state or local governments or schools from giving preferences to anyone in employment, education or contracting based on their sex, race, ethnicity, color or national origin.

Initiative supporters said county recorders improperly declared the signatures of some petitions signers to be invalid.

The publicity pamphlets containing the description of all ballot measures was sent to the printer earlier this week — without Proposition 104, said Kevin Tyne, deputy secretary of state.

Tyne said if Burke does not lift his order — and soon —there is no way for his office to meet its obligation to mail a pamphlet 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 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. The back side of ballots — the side with the initiatives — was supposed to go to the printer Thursday, said Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne.

With that deadline now blown, it may not be possible to print the front side — the side listing the candidates who survive Tuesday's primary elections — in time for that Oct. 2 mailing, she said.

But Burke, at a hearing which started late Thursday, refused to throw out the case.

The judge said the problems of election officials in complying with deadlines do not trump the right of initiative backers to present their case. And he gave backers until Wednesday to review more voter registration records.

County recorders said a check of the nearly 335,000 signatures submitted concluded not enough of them were valid to qualify the measure for the ballot.