Title 19 — Initiative, Referendum and Recall

A. The following shall be the form for referring to the people by referendum petition a measure or item, section or part of a measure enacted by the legislature, or by the legislative body of an incorporated city, town or county: Referendum Description (Insert a description of no…

The legislature recognizes that a referendum may overrule the results of determinations made by representatives of the people and therefore finds and determines that strict compliance with the constitutional and statutory requirements for the referendum process and in the applica…

A. The form of petition for a law or amendment to the constitution of this state or county legislative measure, or city or town ordinance, or amendment to a city or town charter proposed by the initiative to be submitted directly to the electors, shall be substantially in the for…

A. Constitutional and statutory requirements for statewide initiative measures must be strictly construed and persons using the initiative process must strictly comply with those constitutional and statutory requirements. B. The secretary of state shall make available a sample in…

A. A person or organization intending to propose a law or constitutional amendment by initiative petition or to file a referendum petition against a measure, item, section or part of a measure, before causing the petition to be printed and circulated, shall file with the secretar…

A. At any time after a person or organization submits an application for initiative petition or referendum petition for a proposed law or constitutional amendment, a political committee that intends to support the measure or a political committee that intends to oppose the measur…

A. Every qualified elector signing a petition shall do so in the presence of the person who is circulating the petition and who is to execute the affidavit of verification. At the time of signing, the qualified elector shall sign his first and last names in the spaces provided an…

A. A person who has signed a petition prescribed by statute for any candidate nomination, initiative, referendum, recall or formation or modification of a county, municipality or district may withdraw the person's signature from the petition not later than 5:00 p.m. on the date t…

A. No county recorder or justice of the peace and no person other than a person who is qualified to register to vote pursuant to section 16-101 may circulate an initiative or referendum petition and all signatures verified by any such person shall be void and shall not be counted…

Any person who knowingly gives or receives money or any other thing of value for signing an initiative or referendum petition, excluding payments made to a person for circulating such petition, is guilty of a class 1 misdemeanor.

A. Every qualified elector of the state may sign a referendum or initiative petition upon any measure which he is legally entitled to vote upon. B. A person who knowingly signs any name other than his own to a petition, except in a circumstance where he signs for a person in the …

A. A person who knowingly coerces any other person by menace or threat, or threatens any other person to the effect that the other person will or may be injured in his business, or discharged from employment, or that he will not be employed, to sign or subscribe, or to refrain fr…

Notwithstanding any other law, any change in the law or procedure adopted by a governing body with respect to circulation or filing of an initiative or referendum petition after an initiative or referendum petition application is filed pursuant to section 19-111 does not apply to…

B. The circulator registration application required by subsection A of this section shall require the following: 1. The circulator's full name, residence address, telephone number and email address. 2. The initiative or referendum petition on which the circulator will gather sign…

A. A person shall not pay or receive money or any other thing of value based on the number of signatures collected on a statewide initiative or referendum petition. Signatures that are obtained by a paid circulator who violates this section are void and shall not be counted in de…

A. In an attempt to influence the outcome of an election held pursuant to this title, an individual or committee shall not deliver or mail any document that falsely purports to be a mailing authorized, approved, required, sent or reviewed by or that falsely simulates a document f…

A. For the purposes of this title, a person commits petition signature fraud if the person does either of the following with the intent to defraud: 1. Intentionally collects for filing petition signature sheets with the knowledge that the person whose name appears on the signatur…

Each election cycle the secretary of state shall prepare and publish an initiative, referendum and recall handbook that provides guidance on interpreting, administering, applying and enforcing the laws relating to initiative, referendum and recall. The secretary of state shall ma…

A. Signature sheets filed shall: 1. Be in the form prescribed by law. 2. Have printed in their lower right-hand corner, on each side of such sheets, the official serial number assigned to the petition by the secretary of state and, if applicable, the registration number assigned …

A. Within twenty days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and other legal holidays, after the date of filing of an initiative or referendum petition and issuance of the receipt, the secretary of state shall: 1. Remove the following: (a) Those sheets not attached to a copy of the comple…

A. Within fifteen days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and other legal holidays, after receiving the facsimile signature sheets from the secretary of state pursuant to section 19-121.01, the county recorder shall determine which signatures of individuals whose names were transmitte…

A. If the county recorder fails or refuses to comply with the provisions of section 19-121.02, any citizen may apply, within five calendar days after such failure or refusal, to the superior court for a writ of mandamus. If the court finds that the county recorder has not complie…

A. Within seventy-two hours, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and other legal holidays, after receipt of the facsimile signature sheets and the certification of each county recorder, the secretary of state shall determine the total number of valid signatures by subtracting from the t…

A. The secretary of state shall establish a separate fund from which he shall reimburse a county recorder for actual expenses incurred by the county recorder for performance of his duties under the provisions of section 19-121.02, but not to exceed the rate of fifty cents per sig…

A. If the secretary of state refuses to accept and file a petition for the initiative or referendum, or proposal for a constitutional amendment that has been presented within the time prescribed, or if the secretary of state refuses to transmit the facsimiles of a signature sheet…

A. When the secretary of state is ordered by the legislature, or by petition under the initiative and referendum provisions of the constitution, to submit to the people a measure or proposed amendment to the constitution, the secretary of state shall cause to be printed, at the e…

A. The person filing an initiative petition may at the same time file with the secretary of state an argument advocating the measure or constitutional amendment proposed in the petition. Not later than twenty-seven days preceding the regular primary election a person may file wit…

Not later than sixty days preceding the regular primary election, the commission on judicial performance review shall prepare and file with the secretary of state the following information relating to justices of the supreme court and judges of the court of appeals for publicatio…

A. The secretary of state, at the time the secretary of state transmits to the clerks of the boards of supervisors a certified copy of the name of each candidate for public office, shall transmit to each clerk a certified copy of the official title, the descriptive title and the …

A. The votes on measures and proposed constitutional amendments shall be counted, canvassed and returned by the officers of the election boards as votes for candidates are counted, canvassed and returned, and the abstract made by the clerks of the boards of supervisors of the sev…

A. If a measure or proposed constitutional amendment, at the ensuing election, is approved by the people, the preserved copies with the sheets, signatures and affidavits, and a certified copy of the governor's proclamation declaring them to have been approved by the people, shall…

A person filing an initiative or referendum petition or measure who, at the time of filing the petition or measure, knows it is falsely made, or who knowingly destroys or suppresses an initiative or referendum petition or measure, or any part thereof, which has been duly filed wi…

A. This chapter applies to the legislation of cities, towns and counties, except as specifically provided to the contrary in this article. The duties required of the secretary of state as to state legislation shall be performed in connection with such legislation by the city or t…

A. The whole number of votes cast at the citywide or townwide election at which a mayor or councilmen were chosen last preceding the submission of the application for a referendum petition against an ordinance, franchise or resolution shall be the basis on which the number of ele…

A. The whole number of votes cast at the city or town election at which a mayor or councilman was chosen last preceding the submission of the application for an initiative petition is the basis for computing the number of qualified electors of the city or town required to sign th…

A. A challenge to the legal sufficiency of any referendum measure or any proposed amendment or amendments to the constitution ordered by the legislature to be submitted to the people at the polls must be filed within: 1. Twenty days after the referendum is filed with the secretar…