(a) Upon receipt of the minimum number of signatures in lieu of filing fee required by Section 820 of this Code, or a sufficient combination of such signatures and pro rata filing fee, the Director of Elections shall provisionally accept for filing the notice of intention to circulate an initiative petition. Within seven days after the receipt of the petition, the Director of Elections shall notify the proponent of the petition of any deficiency in the in-lieu signatures submitted. The proponent may then, within seven days of notification, submit additional signatures in the same manner as provided in Section 320 of this Code or pay a pro rata portion of the filing fee to cover the deficiency. If the deficiency is not remedied by either method within seven days, the notice of intention shall not be accepted and any filing fee paid by the proponent shall be forfeited.
(b) The notice of intention to circulate an initiative petition shall be deemed filed upon the date that a sufficient number of signatures submitted in lieu of the filing fee have been verified, or the date upon which any deficiency has been cured.
(c) The proponent of an in-lieu petition may submit a greater number of signatures than required by Section 320(b) of this Code. The Director of Elections shall not be required to determine the validity of a greater number of signatures than that required to reduce the filing fee to zero. 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)