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(a) Upon deposit of the fee specified in Section 830 of this Code and the filing of a statement signed under penalty of perjury disclosing the true source of the funds used for payment of the fee, the Director of Elections shall accept for publication any ballot argument otherwise complying with the provisions of this Article.
(b) When the true source of the funds used for payment of a publication fee qualifies as a recipient political committee pursuant to California Government Code Section 82013(a), the person submitting the ballot argument shall also disclose the names of the three contributors whose cumulative contributions are the largest contributions received by the committee during the six months immediately preceding submission of the ballot argument.
(Added by Ord. 429-97, App. 11/17/97)
(a) The author of any ballot argument otherwise complying with the provisions of this Article may submit a petition containing signatures in lieu of the publication fee required under Section 830. Any registered voter of the City and County may sign an in-lieu petition for an argument for or against a measure. Each signature shall reduce the amount of the publication fee by the amount specified in Section 840 of this Code. A voter may sign both an initiative or referendum petition and an in-lieu publication fee petition; the petitions, however, must be separate documents.
(b) Any registered voter of the City and County may sign in-lieu of publication fee petition for more than one argument concerning the same measure. However, a registered voter may not sign an in-lieu publication fee petition for one particular argument more than once.
(c) Each in-lieu petition shall include a complete and accurate copy of the text of the proposed argument and shall be submitted in a format prescribed by the Director of Elections. Each petition shall also include spaces for the voter's signature, printed name and residence address. The residence address shall include street and number within the City and County, or other adequate designation of residence so that the location may be readily ascertained. Across the top of each printed page there shall be printed in 12-point boldface type the following: "Petition in Lieu of Ballot Argument Publication Fee."
(d) Each in-lieu petition shall include an affidavit signed by the circulator in substantially the same form as set forth in California Elections Code Section 9022, except that the affidavit shall declare that the circulator is a voter of the City and County and shall state the address at which the circulator is registered to vote at the time of the execution of the affidavit.
(Added by Ord. 429-97, App. 11/17/97)
(a) Upon receipt of the minimum number of signatures required, or a sufficient combination of such signatures and pro rata publication fee, the Director of Elections shall provisionally accept the argument for inclusion in the ballot pamphlet. Within seven days after the receipt of the petition, the Director of Elections shall notify the submitter of the petition of any deficiency in the in-lieu signatures submitted. The submitter may then, prior to the close of the period for the submission of arguments, submit additional signatures in compliance with the provisions of this Article governing in-lieu petitions, or pay a pro rata portion of the publication fee to cover the deficiency.
(b) If determination of the deficiency occurs after the close of the period for submission of arguments, the submitter, within 24 hours of being notified of the deficiency, shall pay an amount sufficient to cure the deficiency or the Director of Elections shall not publish the argument. In the event the Director of Elections does not publish the argument, the Director of Elections shall reimburse the submitter for any payment previously made.
(c) The submitter of an in-lieu petition may submit a greater number of signatures than required to allow for subsequent losses due to the invalidity of some signatures. The Director of Elections shall not be required to determine the validity of a greater number of signatures than that required to qualify the argument for publication.
(d) The author of an argument may submit both an in-lieu petition and deposit a fee which combined exceed the number of signatures and/or amount of money required to qualify the argument for publication, up to and including submittal of the full number of signatures and payment of the full fee. The Director of Elections shall thereafter refund any remaining portion of the fee not needed to cure any deficiency in the in-lieu petition caused by invalid signatures.
(e) If the number of signatures affixed to an in-lieu petition is 100 or more, the Director of Elections may use a random sampling technique for verification of the signatures. The random sampling shall include an examination of 100 signatures, or three percent of the total number of signatures submitted, whichever is greater. Upon completion of the verification of signatures in the sample, the percentage of signatures which are valid shall be applied and projected to the total number of signatures submitted.
(Added by Ord. 429-97, App. 11/17/97)
No argument filed in accordance with the provisions of this Article shall exceed 300 words in length and each such argument shall be subscribed by the name or names of the person or persons submitting the same, or, if submitted on behalf of an association or organization, the name of the association or organization and the name of at least one of its principal officers who is a registered San Francisco voter. In counting the number of words in any argument, the names of the individuals and entities subscribed thereto or submitted as co-authors of said argument shall be included in said word count.
(Added by Ord. 429-97, App. 11/17/97)
The Director of Elections shall, upon the receipt of any argument within the time limit specified in this Article, review the same for conformity with the provisions of Sections 530(c), 530(d), and 575 of this Article. If any argument is found not to conform with the provisions of said Sections, the Director of Elections shall forthwith return said argument to the person filing the same indicating in what respect said argument does not so conform and without prejudice to the filing of a revised argument by said person within the time limit prescribed in Section 535 of this Article. In the event the Director of Elections finds that the argument does not comply with the requirements of this Article after the time limit prescribed in Section 535, the proponent of the argument may submit a revised argument within 24 hours after receiving notice of the defect by the Director of Elections.
(Added by Ord. 429-97, App. 11/17/97)
In the event that an argument has been prepared and submitted in compliance with this Article, the Director of Elections shall publish the argument in the voter information pamphlet. Immediately following each paid ballot argument in the voter information pamphlet, the Director of Elections shall include a statement disclosing the name of the individual or entity that is the true source of the funds used for publication of that argument. In addition, if the true source of funds is a recipient political committee pursuant to California Government Code Section 82013(a), the Director of Elections shall publish a statement disclosing the names of the three largest contributors to that committee, as provided to the Department of Elections pursuant to Section 560 of this Code.
(Added by Ord. 429-97, App. 11/17/97)
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