Petitions Submitted for Oregon Gay Rights Ban : Elections: Backers hope to qualify the initiative on the November ballot. Meanwhile, similar drives in Washington state and Missouri fail.

An Oregon group that is seeking a ban on gay rights legislation submitted signatures Friday in hopes of getting its proposal on the November ballot. Groups with similar goals came up short in Washington state and Missouri.

They are among several states where petition drives by gay rights opponents have been under way this year. In Arizona on Thursday, a group sponsoring such a drive said it had dropped the petition campaign and instead would concentrate on challenging existing gay rights ordinances.

In Michigan, backers face a Monday deadline of submitting enough signatures to force a statewide vote.

The Oregon Citizens Alliance turned in what it said were 120,000 signatures to put its new anti-gay rights initiative on the statewide ballot. The measure will qualify for the November ballot if the secretary of state determines that at least 89,000 of the signatures are valid.

Alliance Chairman Lon Mabon said he was confident that the measure would pass because the language is less strident than the wording of a similar measure defeated by voters in 1992.

In Missouri, Paul Summers, president of the Amendment Coalition, said his group did not get enough signatures by Friday’s deadline for a ballot proposal to prevent the state and local governments from enacting laws and ordinances providing special protection to homosexuals.

In Washington state, sponsors blamed their failure on gay rights activists who stumped the state urging voters not to sign the petitions.

The group said it collected more than 180,000 signatures, but officials recommend submitting at least 210,000 to ensure that the requirement of 181,667 valid signatures is met.