A qualified elector who has resided in the city during the twelve (12) months immediately preceding an election may be nominated for an elective city office to be filled at the election. The nomination shall be by a petition that specifies the office and position sought and shall be in a form prescribed by the council. The petition shall be signed by not fewer than 20 electors. No elector shall sign more than one petition for each office to be filled at the election. If he does so, his signature shall be valid only on the first sufficient petition filed for the office. The signatures to a nomination petition need not all be appended to one paper, but to each separate paper of the petition shall be attached an affidavit of the circulator thereof, indicating the number of signers of the paper and stating that each signature appended thereto was made in his presence and is the genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to be. Opposite each signature shall be stated the signer’s place of residence, identified by its street and number or other sufficient designation. All nomination papers comprising a petition shall be assembled and filed with the recorder as one instrument not earlier than ninety (90) nor later than thirty (30) days before the election. The recorder shall be made a record of the exact time at which each petition is filed, and shall take and preserve the name and address of the person by whom it is filed. If the petition is not signed by the required number of qualified electors, the recorder shall notify the candidate and the person who filed the petition within five (5) days after the filing. If the petition is insufficient in any other particular, the recorder shall return it immediately to the person who filed it, certifying in writing wherein the petition is insufficient. The deficient petition may be amended and filed again as a new petition, or a substitute petition for the same candidate may be filed, within the regular time for filing nomination petitions. The recorder shall notify an eligible person of his nomination, and that person shall file with the recorder his written acceptance of the nomination, in such form as the council may require, within five (5) days of notification of nomination. Upon receipt of the acceptance of the nomination, the recorder shall cause the nominee’s name to be printed on the ballots. The petition of nomination for a successful candidate at an election shall be preserved in the office of the recorder until the term of office for which the candidate is elected expires.