The Hawaii Supreme Court has rejected Stop Rail Now's request for emergency relief from an earlier court ruling. That lower court ruling and the City Clerk's count of the number of valid signatures on Stop Rail Now's petition effectively kills the group's effort to get its question on the November ballot.

However, Honolulu voters will still get to vote on rail in November. That's because the City Council has already approved a ballot measure that asks voters whether the city shall "establish a steel wheel on steel rail transit system."

The council's wording was to be placed on the ballot only if Stop Rail Now's ballot effort failed.

Honolulu Circuit Court Judge Karl Sakamoto this morning reinforced his earlier ruling stating that Stop Rail Now would need about 44,500 valid signatures to get its anti-rail ordinance on the November ballot.

The decision means the group's proposed ordinance stating "Honolulu mass transit shall not include trains or rail," will not be on the ballot. Stop Rail Now maintained it needs only about 30,000 signatures.

Later today Honolulu City Clerk Denise De Costa is expected to announce whether Stop Rail Now's petition, which was submitted earlier this month, contains the necessary signatures. However Stop Rail Now has already conceded that its petition does not contain 44,500 valid voter signatures. The deadline to collect more signatures has passed.