COLUMBUS – Supporters of a ballot measure to skirt the Electoral College and give Ohio's presidential electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote are backing off the proposal.

Organizers of the "Presidential Election Popular Vote" amendment formally withdrew the proposed constitutional amendment Tuesday, the day before the measure was expected to advance to the signature-collecting phase of the process.

Ohioans for Making Every Vote Matter, the group behind the effort, released a statement Tuesday evening in which it said it wouldn't have enough time to collect enough signatures to qualify for the November 2019 ballot.

"Due to the time constraints and high number of signatures needed to place a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot for 2019, it will not be possible to meet the deadline for this year," the committee said in the statement, sent through Columbus attorney Don McTigue. "Ohioans for Making Every Vote Matter plans to continue to work to raise the importance of a national popular vote for the election of the President with Ohio voters."

To qualify for the Nov. 5 ballot, supporters needed to collect at least 442,958 signatures of registered Ohio voters, meeting a certain threshold in 44 of Ohio's 88 counties, by July 3.

The proposed amendment cleared the initial hurdle to qualify for the ballot just last week but was quickly criticized both for the proposal and for the secrecy behind the group.

Committee members were only identified through documents obtained by The Enquirer through a public records request, and no one affiliated with the petition contacted by The Enquirer would comment on the effort.

The harshest criticism came from one of the largest supporters of a system where states allocate their presidential electoral votes to the popular vote winner.

John Koza, chair of the National Popular Vote, distanced his group from the effort in an opinion column published in The Enquirer. Koza suggested the Ohio measure was an effort to use the popularity of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which his group supports, to enact something very different.