North Dakota supporters of joint child custody in divorce cases have drafted a second ballot measure to encourage the practice, nine months after a more complex proposal was defeated at the polls.

It would change state law to require judges to award joint legal and physical custody of children if either parent requests it in a divorce case, if neither parent is considered unfit or dangerous to the child.

Joint physical custody, which refers to where the child lives, is defined as an equal division of the child's time between the two parents, or "any written time-sharing agreement agreed upon by the parents," the proposed measure says.

The proposal was submitted to Secretary of State Al Jaeger's office on Monday. Jaeger has until Aug. 15 to approve the measure for circulation, which will allow its supporters to begin gathering the petition signatures they need to put it on the ballot.

Backers of the initiative will have one year to gather signatures from at least 12,844 eligible North Dakota voters, which is the minimum required to put the question to a statewide vote.

Debora Vaagen, of West Fargo, who is the chairwoman of the initiative campaign, said the measure's supporters want to put it on the November 2008 ballot.

The measure, which is only two sentences long, is much simpler than a child-custody initiative that North Dakota voters defeated last year, Vaagen said.

Last year's initiative, while seeking to encourage joint custody arrangements, also limited child-support payments to "the actual cost of providing for the basic needs" of a child. Vaagen, who campaigned for the first measure, said she believed its child-support language increased opposition to it.

"I absolutely think this is better than the last one," Vaagen said of the new measure. "It is shorter and to the point."