An effort to amend the state Constitution to give city and town clerks more time to check petition signatures on citizen ballot initiatives was failing by four percentage points late Tuesday.

With 509 precincts, or 84 percent, reporting, the proposal was falling 243,831 to 233,763 or 52 percent to 48 percent.

The proposal would increase the amount of time clerks have to certify petition signatures from five days to 10, which would reduce the amount of overtime communities would have to pay workers.

Local officials must check petition signatures against voter lists before submitting the petitions to the state.