A Portland ballot measure to tap clean energy funds to increase the number of police officers has failed to qualify for the November ballot. Backed by the Portland Police Association, the campaign turned in 62,000 signatures on July 6, but city elections officials disqualified 498 signature sheets for reasons like sloppy circulator signatures or dates having been crossed out and overwritten. Then Multnomah County elections officials used statistical sampling method to invalidate signatures from signers who don’t live in the City of Portland, aren’t registered to vote, or whose signatures didn’t match those on file. In the end, they determined that there were 34,130 valid signatures, 6,307 short of the required 40,437 minimum. The campaign, known as Safer Portland, alleges that election officials abused their discretion to invalidate signatures, and has called on the city auditor and city attorney to intervene.