The Maine Secretary of State’s Office has released the final wording of a referendum question concerning transgender students that’s been removed from the ballot.

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows this week removed the question from the ballot after a review found that more than 12,000 signatures were invalid.

The final wording has been released with petitioners filing an appeal to get the question back on the ballot.

The final wording of the question if it does ultimately appear on the ballot is:

“Do you want to change civil rights and education laws to require public schools to restrict access to bathrooms, other private spaces, and sports, based on the sex on every child’s original birth certificate, and allow students to sue the schools?”

Tuesday’s ruling to remove the question comes after a lawsuit challenging the validity of thousands of signatures gathered by petitioners.

Bellows says the three Mainers who filed a lawsuit brought new evidence showing that organizers with the effort called Protect Girls Sports in Maine left the petitions unattended while gathering signatures at polling locations.

Her office found that more than 12,000 signatures are invalid, putting the initiative about 500 signatures short of the number required for the question to appear on the ballot.

It comes after Bellows initially said that the initiative did gather enough valid signatures and would appear on the ballot.

In a response, the Maine GOP said Bellows, who’s also running for governor, “has a bad habit of abusing her power as Secretary of State for her own political agenda, and she needs to be stopped.”