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Persons desiring to qualify as candidates for any elective office under this charter shall file with the City Clerk a petition therefor signed by not less than twenty (20) nor more than forty (40) registered electors of the City not later than the closing time of the City offices on the twelfth Tuesday prior to the date of the regular and/or special city election. Blank petitions in substantially the same form as required by state law for state and county officers, except for references to party, shall be prepared and furnished by the Clerk. At least one week before, and not more than three weeks before, the last day for filing nominating petitions, the Clerk shall publish notice to that effect. NOTE: The Charter language pertaining to filing nominating petitions for the regular city election is superseded by Michigan Election Law MCL 168.646(a)(1) as amended under PA 276 of 2012. The candidate nomination petition filing deadline is the August Primary election date at 5:00 p.m.
(Amendment Approved at the General Election of November 2, 2010; Am. Res. 11-06-2017-1, passed 11-6-17; Am. Res. 02-05-2018-2, passed 2-5-18)
The Clerk shall accept for filing only nominating petitions on official blanks containing the required number of signatures for qualified candidates. When petitions are filed by persons other than the person whose name appears thereon as a candidate, they may be accepted for filing only when accompanied by the written consent of the person in whose behalf the petition or petitions were circulated. The Clerk shall forthwith determine the sufficiency of the signatures on each petition filed, and if he/she finds that any petition does not contain the required number of legal signatures of registered electors, he/she shall immediately notify the candidate, who may file an amended petition not later than five (5) days after the date and hour for filing the original petition. Petitions which are found by the Clerk to contain the required number of signatures of registered electors for candidates shall be marked "Qualified", with the date thereof.
The form of the ballot used in any city election shall conform as nearly as may be to that prescribed by the general laws of the state, except that no party designation or emblem shall appear upon any city ballot. The names of qualified candidates for each office shall be listed in a single column and shall be rotated on the ballots. In all other respects the printing and numbering of ballots shall conform to the general laws of the state relating to elections.
An election commission is hereby created, consisting of the City Clerk, the City Treasurer, and the Mayor. The City Clerk shall be chairperson. The commission shall have charge of all other activities and duties relating to the conduct of elections in the City as required by state law. The compensation of election personnel shall be determined in advance by the commission, and shall be a fixed amount for each election; provided, such compensation shall not exceed the amount appropriated for elections in the budget, unless such increase shall first have been approved by the City Council as are other increases in appropriations for any department or function. The commission shall perform all of the duties required of city election commissions by state law and this charter. In the event of a conflict in election procedure as between the general election laws of the state and the provisions of this charter, or in any case where election procedure is in doubt, the election commission shall prescribe the procedure to be followed. When a city election is held on the same day as a national, state or county election or primary, the same election officials shall act in both the city election and the national, state or county election or primary.
(Amendment Approved at the General Election of November 2, 2010)
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