The Mayor, or any or all members of the City Council provided for in the Charter, may be removed from office by the electors. The procedures to effect such removal shall be as follows:
A petition demanding that the question of removing said officer or officers shall be submitted to the electors and filed with the City Clerk. Such petition for the recall of the Mayor, or any or all of the Councilmen, shall be signed by at least twenty percent of the total number of registered voters in the Municipality. The signatures to such petition need not be appended to any one paper.
Petition papers shall be procured only from the Clerk of said City, who shall keep a sufficient number of such blank petitions on file for distribution as herein provided. Prior to the issuance of such petition papers, an affidavit shall be made by one or more qualified electors and filed with the City Clerk, stating the name and office of the officer or officers sought to be removed. The Clerk, upon issuing any such petition papers to an elector, shall enter in a record to be kept in said Clerk’s office, the name of the elector to whom issued, the date of such issuance and the number of papers issued, and shall certify on such papers the name of the elector to whom issued and the date issued. No petition paper so issued shall be accepted as part of a petition unless it bears such certificate of the Clerk and unless it be filed as provided herein.
Each signer of a recall petition shall sign his name in ink, or indelible pencil, and shall place thereonafter his name and his place of residence by street and number. To each such petition paper, there shall be attached an affidavit of the circulator thereof stating the number of signers to such part of the petition, and that such signature appended to the paper was made in his presence and is the genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to be.
All papers comprising a recall petition shall be filed with the Clerk as one instrument within thirty days after the filing with the Clerk of the affidavit stating the names and office of the officers sought to be removed.
The Clerk shall at once submit the recall petition to the City Council and shall notify the officers sought to be recalled of such action. If the official whose removal is sought does not resign within five days after such notice, the Council shall thereupon order and fix a day for holding the recall election. Any such election shall be held not less than forty nor more than sixty days after the petition has been presented to the Council; at the same time as any other general or special election is to be held within such period, the Council shall order a special recall election to be held within the time aforesaid.
The ballots of such recall election shall conform to the following requirements:
With respect to each person whose removal is sought, the question shall be submitted, “Shall (name of person) be removed from the office of (name of office) by recall?”
Immediately following such question, there shall be printed on the ballot the two propositions in the order set forth:
[ ] For the recall of (name of person) (name of office).
[ ] Against the recall of (name of person) (name of office).
Immediately to the left of the petition, shall be placed the square in which the electors, by making a mark, may vote for either of such propositions. Should a majority of votes cast at a recall election be against the recall of the officer named on the ballot, said officer shall continue in office for the remainder of his unexpired term. Not more than one recall election shall be held with respect to an officer during his term of office. If a majority of votes cast at a recall election shall be for the recall of the officer named on the ballot, he shall, regardless of any technical defects in the recall petition, be deemed removed from office and shall not be appointed to fill any municipal office during the remainder of said term.
No recall petition shall be filed against an officer within six months after he takes his office. Such election shall be conducted, canvassed and the results ascertained in all respects, as other elections within the said City.