At any general election or at any special election which may be called for that purpose, the county legislative authority of a county may, or on petition of ten percent of the registered voters of the county based on the total vote cast in the last general county election, shall, by resolution, submit to the voters of the county the proposition of creating a public hospital district coextensive with the limits of the county. The petition shall be filed with the county auditor, who shall within fifteen days examine the signatures thereon and certify to the sufficiency thereof, and for that purpose the auditor shall have access to all registration books in the possession of election officers in the county. If the petition is found to be insufficient, it shall be returned to the persons filing it, who may amend or add names thereto for ten days, when it shall be returned to the auditor, who shall have an additional fifteen days to examine it and attach the certificate thereto. No person signing the petition may withdraw his or her name therefrom after filing. When the petition is certified as sufficient, the auditor shall forthwith transmit it, together with the certificate of sufficiency attached thereto, to the county legislative authority, who shall immediately transmit the proposition to the supervisor of elections or other election officer of the county, and he or she shall submit the proposition to the voters at the next general election or if such petition so requests, shall call a special election on such proposition in accordance with RCW 29A.04.321 and 29A.04.330. The notice of the election shall state the boundaries of the proposed district and the object of the election, and shall in other respects conform to the requirements of law governing the time and manner of holding elections. In submitting the question to the voters, the proposition shall be expressed on the ballot substantially in the following terms:
For public hospital district No. . . . .
Against public hospital district No. . . . .
[ 2012 c 117 § 378; 1990 c 259 § 38; 1955 c 135 § 1; 1945 c 264 § 3; Rem. Supp. 1945 § 6090-32.]