Associated Press

Supporters of ballot measures dealing with property rights and child custody in divorce cases said they have reached their signature goals for putting their initiatives on the ballot.

The property rights measure would amend the North Dakota Constitution to bar state government, and local governments, from forcing the sale of private land for economic development projects through a legal process called eminent domain.

The process is mostly used to acquire property for public works, such as streets and water and sewer lines. The North Dakota measure is one of dozens of proposals across the country that have been offered since the U.S. Supreme Court, in a June 2005 decision, ruled a Connecticut city could force a group of residents to sell their land to benefit a private luxury waterfront development.

Don Berge, of Litchville, the chairman of the property-rights measure, said Friday that about 200 volunteers had gathered more than 32,000 signatures on the initiative petition. The constitutional initiative needs signatures from at least 25,688 eligible voters.

The child-custody measure is a proposed state law that would establish joint physical and legal custody of children in most divorce cases. Under present law, the divorcing parents must agree on a joint custody arrangement.

The measure would limit child support payments to "the actual cost of providing for the basic needs" of a child.

Because the petition is a proposed state law, it requires fewer signatures, a minimum of 12,844 names. The initiative's chairman, Mitchell Sanderson, of Grand Forks, said Friday he believes the petition has close to 16,000 signatures.