23-17-25 - Procedure to compel Secretary of State to file petition.
§ 23-17-25. Procedure to compel Secretary of State to file petition.
If the Secretary of State refuses to file an initiative petition when submitted to him for filing, the person submitting it for filing, within ten (10) days after his refusal, may apply to the Supreme Court for an order requiring the Secretary of State to bring the petition before the court and for a writ of mandamus to compel him to file it. The application shall be considered an emergency matter of public concern and shall be heard and determined with all convenient speed. If the Supreme Court decides that the petition is legal in form, apparently contains the requisite number of signatures of qualified electors, was filed within the time prescribed in the Constitution and was accompanied with the proper filing fee, it shall issue its mandate directing the Secretary of State to file the petition in his office as of the date of submission.
Sources: Laws, 1993, ch. 514, § 13, eff from and after August 3, 1993 (the date the United States Attorney General interposed no objections under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, to the creation of this section).