Court clears the way for vote on cockfighting

<br>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The Oklahoma Supreme Court cleared the way Tuesday for a statewide vote on whether cockfighting should be banned. <br><br>Oklahoma, Louisiana and New Mexico are the only states

Tuesday, November 13th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The Oklahoma Supreme Court cleared the way Tuesday for a statewide vote on whether cockfighting should be banned.

Oklahoma, Louisiana and New Mexico are the only states where cockfighting is legal.

The court ruled that backers of an initiative petition against the sport collected more than enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot.

The measure was to have been placed before voters last fall, but opponents claimed that many of the signatures were improperly collected.

The Supreme Court invalidated 9,002 signatures, but this left 90,002 valid signatures, more than enough to qualify the measure for the ballot.

The court did not specify when the measure should be placed before voters.