The Salt Lake County Clerk's Office received the documents late last month. It is expected to take 30 days to count and validate signatures. The residents would need more than about 1,200 valid signatures of registered voters to get the referendum, which would oppose the proposed extension route, on the ballot.

Leaders with Citizens for Responsible Transportation (CRT) - an organization seeking an alternative route to keep TRAX light-rail trains out of residential areas - said they got 1,754 signatures in a 45-day period, mainly through door-to-door efforts.

"We support it [TRAX] coming in to Draper, but it would be more logical and cost-effective to continue the linear line along the State Street corridor instead of looping to the east bench and down around to the Point of the Mountain," said Summer Pugh, a CRT leader. "It just makes more sense to go down State."

Pugh said safety, noise, traffic, cost-effectiveness and other logistical issues drove the move. The City Council late last year voted unanimously to support the Utah Transit Authority's choice of that route.

Rozan Mitchell, Salt Lake County's assistant elections manager, is prepared for unique issues with the Draper referendum. She said because the city straddles Salt Lake and Utah county lines, petition names may have to be passed off for verification to Utah County.

sgehrke@sltrib.com