SEATTLE — A group trying to overturn Seattle’s strict new rules for strip clubs turned in thousands of signatures to the City Clerk’s Office Monday, saying they hoped to force a vote sometime next year.

Timothy Killian, who heads Seattle Citizens for Free Speech, delivered a 14-inch stack of papers bearing what he said was 27,138 signatures. He planned to present at least 5,000 more on Tuesday. The group needs 14,000 valid signatures to force a ballot measure on the regulations.

Last month, the City Council voted 5-4 to require that dancers keep 4 feet from customers, that customers be banned from directly giving money to the dancers, and that clubs maintain lighting levels akin to that of a decently lit parking garage.

The rules were scheduled to take effect next spring.

The mayor’s office had suggested the changes, saying they would help keep new strip clubs from opening in Seattle after a federal court judge struck down the city’s 17-year moratorium on new cabarets as an unconstitutional restraint on free speech.

Supporters of the regulations said the existing “no touching” rule was completely ignored and almost impossible to enforce in dark clubs without buying a lap dance. They also said the changes would protect the dancers by making them employees of a club, rather than private contractors.

Critics said the rules were designed to shut down Seattle’s few remaining strip clubs, would severely cut the dancers’ income, and were unbecoming of a city that fancies itself a bastion of tolerance and liberalism.

“We think they are out of step with the way Seattle citizens see themselves as a major metropolitan, urban center,” Killian said.

Killian’s group and lawyers for the strip clubs say a better way to regulate strip clubs would be through zoning, to keep them away from schools, churches and homes. Seattle has no zoning regulations governing adult entertainment.