(1) Except as provided in section 1-13.5-303 or other applicable law, candidates for office of nonpartisan local governments must be nominated, without regard to affiliation, by petition on forms supplied by the designated election official. A petition of nomination may consist of one or more sheets, but it must contain the name and address of only one candidate and indicate the office to which the candidate is seeking election. The candidate's name must be printed on each sheet of a petition of nomination.
Nomination petitions for a candidate in a local government, other than a special district or business improvement district, may be circulated and signed, beginning on January 1 of the year in which election for that office is conducted and ending on the sixty-seventh day prior to the day of election, by at least two eligible electors residing within or eligible to vote in the local government.
The circulator of each nomination petition shall make an affidavit that each signaturethereon is the signature of the person whose name it purports to be and that each signer has stated to the circulator that the signer is an eligible elector of the local government for which the nomination is made.
A petition is not valid if it does not contain the requisite number of signatures ofeligible electors. The designated election official shall inspect timely filed petitions of nomination to ensure compliance with this section.
Each nomination petition must be filed with the designated election official no laterthan the sixty-seventh day prior to the day of election. Every petition must have endorsed on it or appended to it the written affidavit of the candidate accepting the nomination and swearing that the candidate satisfies the requirements set forth in law to be a candidate and hold office in the local government.
The designated election official shall preserve all nomination petitions filed with himor her for a period of two years. All such petitions are open to public inspection under proper regulation by the designated election official with whom they are filed.
Source: L. 2014: Entire article added, (HB 14-1164), ch. 2, p. 12, § 6, effective February 18.