A. Number Of Petitioners Required: To enact an ordinance by initiative or to repeal an ordinance by referendum, there shall be attached or appended to the petition the signatures of the legal voters of the city equal to at least twenty percent (20%) of the total number of voters registered to vote at the last general election in the city.
B. Form Of Petitions:
1. Initiative Petition: The initiative petition shall be in substantially the following form:
Initiative Petition to the Mayor and Council of the City of Challis, Idaho: We, the undersigned citizens and legal voters of the City of Challis, Idaho, respectfully demand that the following proposed ordinance, to-wit: (setting out full text of measure proposed) shall be submitted to the legal voters of the City of Challis, Idaho, for their approval or rejection at an election to be called in accordance with Idaho Code Section 50-501(3), and each for himself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a legal voter of the City of Challis, Idaho; my residence and post office are correctly written after my name.
Name
Street Number
Post Office
(Here follow numbered lines for signature)
2. Referendum Petition: The petition for referendum on any ordinance passed by the city council shall be in substantially the same form with appropriate title and changes, setting out in full the text of the ordinance to be referred to the people for their approval or rejection.
C. Time For Filing Petitions: Referendum petitions with the requisite number of signatures attached shall be filed with the city clerk-treasurer not less than sixty (60) days following the final adoption of the ordinance to be subject to referendum.
D. Printing Of Petition; Time Limits For Perfecting Petition:
1. Before or at the time of beginning to circulate any petition for initiative or referendum, the person under whose authority the petition is to be circulated, shall send or deliver to the city clerk-treasurer a copy of such petition duly signed by at least twenty (20) electors eligible to sign such petition. The clerk-treasurer shall immediately examine the petition and specify the form and kind and size of paper on which the petition shall be printed and circulated for further signatures. All petitions and sheets for signatures shall be printed on a good quality bond or ledger paper, on pages eight and one-half inches (81/2") in width by thirteen inches (13") in length, with a margin of one and three-fourths inches (13/4") at the top for binding, and the sheets for signatures shall have numbered lines thereon from one to twenty (1–20) for signatures. The petition shall be prepared in sections, with each section numbered consecutively. Each section of a petition must have a printed copy of the petition as the first page, and each section shall have attached to it not more than ten (10) sheets for signatures.
2. The city clerk-treasurer shall indicate in writing on the petition that he has approved it as to form. The clerk-treasurer shall inform the person under whose authority the petition is to be circulated, in writing, that the petition must be perfected with the required number of certified signatures within sixty (60) days following the effective date of adoption of the ordinances subject to referendum, or, in the case of an initiative, within sixty (60) days following the date of approval as to form. Any petition that has not been perfected with the required number of certified signatures within the sixty (60) days allowed shall be declared null and void ab initio in its entirety.
E. Verification Of Signatures: Each and every signature sheet of each petition containing signatures shall be verified on the face thereof in substantially the following form by the person who circulated said sheet of the petition, by his or her affidavit thereon, as a part thereof:
State of Idaho )
) ss.
County of Custer )
I, , swear, under penalty of perjury, that every person who signed this sheet of the foregoing petition signed his or her name thereto in my presence. I believe that each has stated his or her name and the accompanying required information on the signature sheet correctly, and that the person was eligible to sign this petition.
Signature
Post Office Address
SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN To before me this day of , 19 .
(notary seal)
Notary Public
residing at
Comm. expires:
F. Examination And Certification Of Signatures:
1. All petitions with attached signature sheets shall be presented on the same day to the city clerk-treasurer who shall make a cursory examination of them to determine whether the petitions apparently contain the necessary number of signatures.
a. If the total number of signatures on the petitions is not sufficient to satisfy the number required by subsection A of this section, all petitions with attached signature sheets shall be retained by the city clerk-treasurer who shall notify in writing the person filing the petition of the number of signatures needed, and further signatures may be gathered, if within the time limit of subsections C and D of this section.
b. If the cursory examination of the signature sheets reveals:
Erasures on any signatures;
Illegible or undecipherable signatures;
Signatures not properly identified by all of the information required on the sheet;
Duplicate signatures;
Signatures of persons who have requested in writing to have their names removed from the petition;
the city clerk-treasurer shall summarily reject such signatures and they shall not be counted. Each rejected signature shall be drawn through with ink and initialed by the clerk-treasurer. If the total number of signatures not rejected is not sufficient to satisfy the number required by subsection A of this section, all petitions with attached signature sheets shall be retained by the clerk-treasurer who shall notify in writing the person filing the petition of the number of signatures needed, and further signatures may be gathered, if within the time limit of subsections C and D of this section.
2. All petitions presented to the city clerk-treasurer found to apparently contain the necessary number of signatures, after the cursory examination provided for above, shall be filed with the city clerk-treasurer and become public records of the city not to be returned. The city clerk-treasurer shall examine each such signature purported to be that of a registered elector of the city and compare each such signature with the registration documents available to the city clerk-treasurer. The city clerk- treasurer shall summarily reject all signatures which are not the signatures of a registered elector of the city; and such rejected signatures shall not be counted. Each rejected signature shall be drawn through with ink and initialed by the city clerk-treasurer. The clerk-treasurer may take not to exceed ten (10) days after filing of the petition to complete his examination. He shall certify each signature found to comply with all of the requirements of this section 1-8-3 by an appropriate mark following each signature.
The city clerk-treasurer shall total the number of certified signatures, and if found to total the number of signatures required by subsection A of this section, shall proceed as provided in section 1-8-3-3 of this chapter. (Ord. 380, 7-12-1977)