A. Presentation To Clerk Of The District Court: All petitions with attached signature sheets shall be presented on the same day to the clerk of the district court, who shall make a cursory examination of them to determine whether the petitions apparently contain the necessary number of signatures.
B. Insufficient Signatures: If the total number of signatures on the petitions is not sufficient to satisfy the number required by section 1-8-2 of this chapter, all petitions with attached signature sheets shall be retained by the clerk of the district court 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 section 1-8-5 of this chapter.
C. Rejection: If cursory examination of the signature sheets reveals:
1. Erasures on any signature;
2. Illegible or undecipherable signatures;
3. Signatures not properly identified by all of the information required on the sheet;
4. Duplicate signatures;
5. Signatures of persons who have requested, in writing, to have their names removed from the petition;
the clerk of the district court 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 of the district court. If the total number of signatures not rejected is not sufficient to satisfy the number required by section 1-8-2 of this chapter, all petitions with attached signature sheets shall be retained by the clerk of the district court 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 section 1-8-5 of this chapter.
D. Filing; Comparison: All petitions presented to the clerk of the district court found to apparently contain the necessary number of signatures, after the cursory examination provided for above, shall be filed with the clerk of the district court and become public records of the county not to be returned. The clerk of the district court shall examine each such signature purported to be that of a registered elector of this county and compare each such signature with the registration documents available to the clerk of the district court. The clerk of the district court shall summarily reject all signatures which are not the signatures of a registered elector of this county, and such rejected signatures shall not be counted. Rejected signatures shall be drawn through with ink and initialed by the clerk of the district court. The clerk of the district court may take up to, but not more than ten (10) days after filing of the petition to complete his examination. The clerk shall certify each signature found to comply with all of the requirements of this chapter by an appropriate mark following each signature.