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11-135. Filing of petition; review; certification of results

A. Completed petitions shall be filed with the secretary of state. All copies and counterparts of the petition shall be filed at the same time.

B. The secretary of state shall not accept the petition unless the signatures have been obtained and the petition is submitted for filing, within two hundred seventy days after the filing of the notice of intention to circulate petitions. If the petition does not meet this requirement, the petition is insufficient and the secretary of state shall file it as a public record without prejudice to the filing of a new petition and immediately notify the person or organization proposing the new counties stating the reason for the insufficiency.

C. On receipt of a petition which meets the requirements of subsection B, the secretary of state shall immediately transmit a copy to the county recorder of each affected county with an order to examine the signatures from his respective county within twenty days. The recorder shall compare the names of a random sampling of at least five per cent of the persons from his county signing the petition with the county registration records and certify the results to the secretary of state.

D. After the secretary of state receives the results from all affected county recorders, he shall determine whether the petition is sufficient. If the petition is insufficient, the secretary of state shall immediately notify by certified mail the person or organization proposing the formation of the new counties and the clerk of the board of supervisors of each affected county stating the reason for the insufficiency and file the petition as a public record without prejudice to the filing of a new petition. If the petition is sufficient, the secretary of state shall immediately transmit copies of his certification to the person or organization proposing the new counties, the clerk of the board of supervisors of each affected county, the president of the senate, the speaker of the house of representatives, each legislator whose district is in an affected county, the attorney general and the governor.

E. A petition may not be filed under this section within three years of the date of certification of a prior petition which included in its description of boundaries for a proposed county any territory which is the subject of the new petition.