SALEM — The Oregon Supreme Court on Friday, April 29, ruled that a proposed ballot title for an initiative to change the way the state redraws political districts was insufficient and sent it back to Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum for a rewrite.

That procedural delay will likely mean proponents wont have enough time once the ballot language is final to gather the signatures needed to get it on the ballot by the early July deadline.

The proposed initiative would take the once-a-decade job of redrawing the states legislative and congressional districts away from Oregon lawmakers and hand the job to a new independent commission. Supporters say state lawmakers face a conflict of interest when they get to redraw their own districts.

The Supreme Court said Rosenblum failed to adequately call out for voters another effect of the proposal: It would scrap lawmakers’ approved legislative and congressional districts and have the new independent commission draw new ones in 2023.

In its unanimous ruling, the court sided with arguments by the political nonprofit Our Oregon, which pools the resources of the states public employee unions, the AFLCIO and other interest groups that tend to support Democrats, including Planned Parenthood and the Oregon League of Conservation Vot- ers. The court ordered

that Rosenblum must rewrite the ballot caption and summary to more clearly explain that the proposed initiative would result in the new commission drawing new maps, to replace those drawn and passed by lawmakers in 2021.

As for the ballot summary, the court ruled that “the seven-word statement that the attorney general has used to describe the effect — ’Repeals 2021 maps; requires redistricting in 20230 — is cryptic in a way that might be necessary in a caption or result statement, where far fewer words are permitted, but is unacceptable in a summary, where the 125-word limit provides a greater opportunity to explain the measures most important effects.

The ruling is a setback for supporters of the redistricting commission, including the former president of the League of Women Voters of Oregon Norman Turrill, who is chief petitioner for the initiative, and good government groups, business associations and the Independent and Progressive parties. With just over two months until the July 8 deadline to turn in signatures to get on the ballot, they still have not received the green light to begin gathering the 149,360 signatures necessary.