Sec. 9-404b. Primary petition forms for candidacies for nomination to state or district office. Signatures. Circulation.
Sec. 9-404b. Primary petition forms for candidacies for nomination to state
or district office. Signatures. Circulation. (a) The petition form for candidacies for
nomination to state or district office shall be prescribed and provided by the Secretary
of the State, and signatures shall be obtained only on such form or on duplicate petition
pages produced in accordance with the provisions of section 9-404a. Such form shall
include, at the top of the form and in bold print, the following:
WARNING
IT IS A CRIME TO SIGN THIS PETITION
IN THE NAME OF ANOTHER PERSON
WITHOUT LEGAL AUTHORITY TO DO SO
AND YOU MAY NOT SIGN THIS PETITION
IF YOU ARE NOT AN ELECTOR.
The form shall include a statement of instructions to persons using the form and shall
indicate the date and time by which it shall be filed and the person with whom it shall
be filed. The form shall provide spaces for the names and addresses of the candidates,
the offices to which nomination is sought and the political party holding the primary,
and shall provide lines for the signatures, street addresses, dates of birth and the printing
of the names of enrolled party members supporting the person or persons on behalf of
whose candidacy the petition is used.
(b) Only as many candidates may be proposed in any one primary petition for the
same office as are to be nominated by such party for such office, but any one primary
petition may propose as many candidates for different state offices as there are nominations to be made.
(c) The names of enrolled party members signing a primary petition may be on
several pages, provided no person shall sign more than one petition page for the same
candidate or candidates. Any person who signs a name other than the person's own to
a primary petition filed under the provisions of this section or who signs a name other
than the person's own as circulator of such petition shall be fined not more than one
hundred dollars or imprisoned not more than one year, or both. Each such page shall
indicate the candidate or candidates supported, the offices sought and the political party
for which nomination is being sought. No page of such a petition shall contain the names
of enrolled party members residing in different municipalities and any petition page
that has been certified by the registrars of two or more municipalities shall be rejected
by the Secretary. Withdrawal of petition signatures shall not be permitted.
(d) Each circulator of a primary petition page shall be an enrolled party member of
a municipality in this state. Each petition page shall contain a statement signed by the
registrar of the municipality in which the circulator is an enrolled party member attesting
that the circulator is an enrolled party member in the municipality. Unless such a statement by the registrar of voters appears on each page so submitted, the Secretary shall
reject the page. Each separate page of the petition shall contain a statement as to the
authenticity of the signatures on the page and the number of such signatures, and shall
be signed under the penalties of false statement by the person who circulated the page,
setting forth the circulator's address and the town in which the circulator is an enrolled
party member and attesting that each person whose name appears on the page signed
the petition in person in the presence of the circulator, that the circulator either knows
each such signer or that the signer satisfactorily identified himself or herself to the
circulator and that the spaces for candidates supported, offices sought and the political
party involved were filled in prior to the obtaining of the signatures. Each separate page
of the petition shall also be acknowledged before an appropriate person as provided in
section 1-29. The Secretary shall reject any page of a petition filed with the Secretary
which does not contain such a statement by the circulator as to the authenticity of the
signatures on the page, or upon which the statement of the circulator is incomplete in
any respect, or which does not contain the certification required under this section by the
registrar of the town in which the circulator is an enrolled party member. Any individual
proposed as a candidate in any primary petition may serve as a circulator of the pages
of the petition, provided the individual's service as circulator does not violate any provision of this section.
(P.A. 03-241, S. 2.)
History: P.A. 03-241 effective January 1, 2004, and applicable to primaries and elections held on or after that date.