The election procedures to be followed in conducting any special election by all-mailed ballot approving a special tax pursuant to the Mello-Roos Community Facilities Act of 1982, as amended (the “Act”) shall be as follows:
A. The special election shall be conducted by the City Clerk of the City, as the elections official, and shall be held on a date selected by the Council.
B. The City Clerk shall publish a resolution calling a special election within ten (10) days of its adoption in a newspaper of general circulation published in the area of the community facilities district (“CFD”).
C. The ballots for the special election shall be distributed to the qualified electors of the CFD by first-class United States mail with return postage prepaid.
D. The City Clerk shall mail to each qualified elector an official ballot in a form adopted by the Council in the resolution calling the special election and shall also mail to all such qualified electors a ballot pamphlet and instructions to the voters, arguments for or against the propositions and rebuttals, if any, received in response to the resolution calling the special election, which shall provide that written arguments not to exceed three hundred (300) words in length for or against the proposition(s) shall be filed with the City Clerk by the designated date and time, and a return identification envelope.
1. The City Clerk shall not commence to mail the ballots to the qualified electors prior to the twenty-ninth (29th) day before the election and shall complete the mailing by the tenth (10th) day before the election.
2. The return identification envelope used in landowner elections shall contain the following substantially in the form (Exhibit A) attached to Ordinance No. 343:
a. The name of the landowner.
b. The address of the landowner.
c. A declaration, under penalty of perjury, stating that the voter is the owner of record or the authorized representative of the landowner entitled to vote and is the person whose name appears on the identification envelope.
d. The printed name and signature of the voter.
e. The address of the voter.
f. The date of signing and place of execution of the declaration described in Subsection c. above.
g. A notice that the envelope contains an official ballot and is to be opened only by the canvassing board.
3. Otherwise, the return identification envelope shall contain the following:
a. A declaration, under penalty of perjury, stating that the voter resides within the precinct in which he or she is voting and is the person whose name appears on the envelope.
b. The signature of the voter.
c. The residence address of the voter as shown on the affidavit of registration.
d. The date of signing.
e. A notice that the envelope contains an official ballot and is to be opened only by the canvassing board.
E. Upon completion of the mailing, the City Clerk shall certify the proper mailing of the ballots by an affidavit.
F. The information on the ballots to be mailed by the City Clerk shall inform the qualified electors that the official ballots shall be returned to the City Clerk properly voted as provided thereon in the sealed return identification envelope(s) with the certification(s) therein completed and signed and all other information to be inserted therein properly inserted by 5:00 p.m. on the date of the election.
G. Upon receipt of the return identification envelope(s) which are returned prior to the voting deadline, the City Clerk shall maintain the envefope(s) in a safe place.
H. Upon the closing of the election, the City Clerk shall canvass the votes as follows:
1. The City Clerk shall appoint a special canvassing board of three (3) persons not employed by the City. The opening, processing and counting of the ballots shall be open to the public. Any interested party may challenge the.manner in which the ballots are processed and counted. If the challenge is not resolved at the time the challenge is made, the canvassing will cease until the Council hears the challenge and renders a decision. The City Clerk shall pay a reasonable compensation to each member of the special canvassing board.
2. Upon completion of the canvassing, the City Clerk shall file a statement with the Council at its next regular or special meeting as to the results of such canvass and the election on the proposition(s) set forth in the official ballot.
I. The procedures set forth in this Section for conducting any special election by all-mailed ballot may be modified as the Council may determine to be necessary or desirable by an ordinance subsequently adopted by the Council.
[Ord. No. 461, Section 3, 5/9/07.]