LITTLE ROCK—Backers of a ballot measure aimed at denying state benefits for illegal immigrants abandoned their effort to appear on November’s ballot on Monday while supporters of a proposal to bar homosexuals from adopting or fostering children turned in petitions to the state.

Supporters of the adoption and foster care measure, however, acknowledged that they’ll probably need to gather more valid signatures to qualify for the election.

Monday was the deadline for supporters of proposed ballot measures to submit signatures with the state. If the petitions are found to not have enough valid signatures, supporters have another 30 days to gather signatures. Both the immigration and adoption initiated acts required at least 61,974 signatures of registered voters.

A group billing itself as Secure Arkansas announced that it had fallen short of that benchmark, gathering only 56,122 signatures in support of its proposal that would have required government agencies to verify that everbody seeking public benefits in the state is a legal U.S. resident.

Jeannie Burlsworth, chairwoman of Secure Arkansas, said the group would instead reorganize and lobby for changes during next year’s legislative session.

The Family Council Action Committee earlier announced that it had gathered 65,899 signatures in support of the proposed initiated act banning unmarried couples living together from fostering or adopting children.

Committee President Jerry Cox said he expected that a number of signatures would be tossed out by the secretary of state’s office and hoped to gather as many as 15,000 additional signatures. The petitions submitted fell short of the 100,000 signatures Cox said he hoped to submit by Monday’s deadline.

Opponents said the low number of signatures turned in shows how little support there is for the ban. The restriction has faced opposition from the state’s top officials, including Gov. Mike Beebe and Attorney General Dustin McDaniel.

A representative from Arkansas Families First, a coalition opposed to the ballot measure, said the group will monitor the signature verification process and has not ruled out challenging the measure in court.

“This ballot measure goes way too far, and I think that’s one of the reasons why they’re having trouble getting signatures,” said Jennifer Ferguson, legal director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, which is part of the coalition opposed to the ban.