PORTLAND (WGME) - The effort to put marijuana legalization on the November ballot is one step closer, after a judge ruled state officials may have improperly invalidated thousands of signatures.

Similar to how voters legalized pot in Portland, Friday's ruling may help get voters a chance to make it legal state-wide.

In February, the campaign to regulate marijuana like alcohol submitted nearly 100,000 signatures to the secretary of state.

But nearly half of those signatures were deemed invalid, in some cases because the signature of the person who notarized it didn't match what state officials had on record.

The campaign appealed the decision, and Friday, a judge ruled in their favor, saying officials need to go back and review signatures again.

It's still unclear how soon the state will re-review these signatures, but Boyer says he's confident it will be within the next couple of weeks.