23-17-5 - Submission of proposed initiative to Attorney General; review; recommendations; certificate of review; filing of proposed initiative and certificate.
§ 23-17-5. Submission of proposed initiative to Attorney General; review; recommendations; certificate of review; filing of proposed initiative and certificate.
Upon receipt of any proposed initiative measure, the Secretary of State shall submit a copy of the proposed measure to the Attorney General and give notice to the person filing the proposed measure of such transmittal. Upon receipt of the measure, the Attorney General may confer with the person filing the proposed measure and shall within ten (10) working days from receipt thereof review the proposal for matters of form and style, and such matters of substantive import as may be agreeable to the person filing the proposed measure, and shall recommend such revision or alteration of the measure as may be deemed necessary and appropriate. The recommendations of the Attorney General shall be advisory only, and the person filing the proposed measure may accept or reject them in whole or in part. The Attorney General shall issue a certificate of review certifying that he has reviewed the measure for form and style and that the recommendations thereon, if any, have been communicated to the person filing the proposed measure, and such certificate shall issue whether or not the person filing the proposed measure accepts such recommendations. Within fifteen (15) working days after notification of submittal of the proposed initiative measure to the Attorney General, the person filing the proposed measure, if he desires to proceed with his sponsorship, shall file the measure together with the certificate of review with the Secretary of State for assignment of a serial number and the Secretary of State shall thereupon submit to the Attorney General a certified copy of the measure filed. Upon submitting the proposal to the Secretary of State for assignment of a serial number the Secretary of State shall refuse to make such assignment unless the proposal is accompanied by a certificate of review.
Sources: Laws, 1993, ch. 514, § 3, 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); Laws, 1998, ch. 546, § 17, eff from and after July 1, 1998.