115.335. Validity of signatures, who shall determine--verification of signatures, procedures--rules authorized.
Validity of signatures, who shall determine--verification ofsignatures, procedures--rules authorized.
115.335. 1. The secretary of state or the election authority shallhave specific authority to determine the validity of signatures onpetitions filed with his office and shall have authority not to count thosewhich are, in his opinion, forged or fraudulent or the signatures ofpersons who are not registered voters.
2. For the purpose of verifying signatures on any new party orindependent candidate petition filed with his office, the secretary ofstate may send copies of petition pages by certified mail to theappropriate election authorities for registration verification. Eachelection authority receiving a copy of petition pages shall check anysignature indicated by the secretary of state against the registrationrecords and return all such copies to the secretary of state by certifiedmail no later than the day designated by the secretary of state. Thesecretary of state shall not designate any deadline for returning copiesand certifications which is less than ten or more than forty days after thecopies have been received by the election authority. If the secretary ofstate or an election authority determines the congressional district numberwritten after the signature of any registered voter is not thecongressional district in which he resides, the secretary of state or theelection authority shall correct the congressional district number on thepetition page. Failure of a voter to give his correct congressionaldistrict number shall not alone be sufficient reason to disqualify hissignature. Only valid signatures from the county named in the circulator'saffidavit shall be counted on any petition page.
3. The secretary of state or election authority shall have authorityto verify the signatures on petitions filed with his office by use ofrandom sampling. Random sampling may be used on any petition on which fivehundred or more signatures are required. Petitions requiring fewer thanfive hundred signatures shall have each signature checked and randomsampling shall not be used. The random sample of signatures to be verifiedshall be drawn in such a manner that every signature contained on the filedpetition shall be given an equal opportunity to be included in the sample.Such a random sampling shall include an examination of not less than fivepercent of the signatures so filed.
4. If the random sample verification establishes that the number ofvalid signatures is less than ninety-five percent of the number ofqualified voters needed to find the petition sufficient, the petition shallbe deemed to have failed to qualify.
5. If the random sample verification establishes that the number ofvalid signatures total more than one hundred five percent of the number ofqualified voters needed to find the petition sufficient, the petition shallbe deemed to qualify in that district.
6. If the random sample verification establishes that the number ofvalid signatures is more than ninety-five percent but less than one hundredfive percent of the number of qualified voters needed to find the petitionsufficient, each signature filed shall be examined and verified.
7. The secretary of state is authorized to adopt rules to ensureuniform, complete and accurate checking of petition signatures either byactual counting or random sampling.
8. If copies of petition pages are sent to any local electionauthority for registration verification under the provisions of thissubchapter, the secretary of state's final determination on the number ofvalid signatures submitted on the petition from the election authority'sjurisdiction shall be based on the certification made by the electionauthority.
(L. 1977 H.B. 101 § 10.073, A.L. 1993 S.B. 31, A.L. 1995 S.B. 3)