Each and every day will count in the race against time for the Mountain View Tenants Coalition to gather signatures for a ballot measure to cap the city’s rent increases. But exactly how much time remains to collect these signatures remains up in the air due to a brewing disagreement between lawyers from the tenants’ group and the city over how election rules should be interpreted.

The question could be crucial as tenant advocates hurry to collect the needed 4,761 signatures to put the proposed measure on the November ballot. As of this week, the group reported it had collected more than half that number, although it couldn’t provide an exact figure.

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Serving as an advisory attorney for the tenants’ coalition, Juliet Brodie, director of the Stanford Law Clinic, said she would be meeting this week with Quinn in hopes of reaching a compromise on the ballot measure scheduling.

“Everyone’s looking hard at just how far in advance of that Aug. 9 date the coalition needs to file its petition,” she said. “We really don’t want to create an environment (with the city) that is adversarial.”