Candidates for the office of city commissioner and the office of mayor shall be nominated only by a non-partisan primary election. The name of any elector of the city shall be printed upon the primary ballot for the office of city commissioner or the office of mayor if there is filed with the election authorities a petition in accordance with the following provisions, to-wit:
(a) Such petition shall state the name and place of residence of each person whose name is presented for a place upon the ballot and that such person is a candidate for the office of city commissioner for, or the office of mayor of, The City of Springfield, Ohio. No person may be a candidate for the office of city commissioner and the office of mayor in the same election.
(b) Such petitions shall be signed by two hundred fifty (250) electors of the municipality.
(c) Such petitions shall contain a provision that each signer thereto thereby pledges himself to support and vote for the candidate or candidates whose names are therein presented for a place upon the ballot, and each elector signing a petition shall add to his signature his place of residence, with street and number, and date of signing, and may subscribe to one nomination for each of the places to be filled and no more. All signatures shall be made with ink or indelible pencil.
(d) The signatures of all the petitioners need not be appended to one paper, but to each separate paper there shall be attached an affidavit of the circulator thereof stating the number of signers thereto, that each person signed in his presence on the date mentioned, and that the signature is that of the person whose name it purports to be.
(e) Such petitions shall not be signed by any elector more than one hundred ten (110) days prior to the day of such primary election and such petition shall be filed with the election authorities not less than ninety (90) days previous to the day of such election.
(f) The number of signatures which may be filed by any one candidate shall not exceed five hundred (500) in number.
(Amended 5-7-02, Ord. No. 02-120, Yeas 3,105; Nays 1,265.)