Section 3. Nomination of Delegates; Withdrawals.--(a) The county committee or committees of each political party in each senatorial district shall collectively nominate two candidates for the office of delegates in accordance with party rules and the names of the nominees submitted to the Secretary of the Commonwealth who shall certify the names of the nominees to the County Board of Election as provided by law not later than sixty days preceding the municipal election in 1967.
(b) Subject to the limitations upon the number in this act applicable to political parties, candidates may also be nominated by political bodies by petition in the form prescribed by the Secretary of the Commonwealth and shall be signed by at least five hundred qualified electors of the senatorial district.
(c) Such petitions shall be filed in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth not later than the fifteenth day of September, 1967. A filing fee of twenty-five dollars ($25) shall be paid by each candidate to the Secretary of the Commonwealth by certified check or money order.
Any elector may sign not more than two nomination petitions for delegate to represent his district. Every signer of a nomination petition shall state his occupation and residence, giving city, borough or township, with street and number, if any, and that he is a qualified elector of the district named, and shall add the date of signing, expressed in words or numbers. No nomination petition shall be circulated prior to twenty days before the last day on which said petition may be filed, and no signature shall be counted unless it bears date within twenty days of the last day of filing the same.
Nomination petitions may be on one or more sheets and different sheets must be used for signers resident in different counties. If more than one sheet is used, they shall be bound together when offered for filing, if they are intended to constitute one petition, and each sheet shall be numbered consecutively at the foot of each page, beginning with number one.
Each sheet shall have appended thereto the affidavit of the person who circulated it setting forth: (i) that such person is a qualified elector of the senatorial district named in the petition; (ii) his or her residence giving city, borough or township, with street and number, if any; (iii) that the signers thereto signed with aforeknowledge of the contents of the petition; (iv) that their respective residences are correctly stated therein; (v) that each signer resides in the district named in the affidavit; (vi) that each signed on the date set opposite his name; and (vii) that to the best of affiant's knowledge and belief the signers are qualified electors of the district.
(d) Each candidate for delegate shall file with the Secretary of the Commonwealth an affidavit stating: (i) his residence with street and number, if any, and his post office address; (ii) that he is eligible for the office of delegate to the constitutional convention; (iii) that if elected he will faithfully observe the limitations and requirements imposed upon the convention by this act; and (iv) that he has been a citizen and resident of this Commonwealth for at least four years and has been a registered elector in the district which he seeks to represent for at least one year.
(e) Any candidate for election as a delegate to the convention may withdraw his name as a candidate by a request in writing, signed by him and acknowledged before an officer empowered to administer oaths, filed in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth not later than 5:00 P. M. on the fifth day next succeeding the last day for filing nomination petitions. In the event of the death or withdrawal of a candidate occurring prior to the time prescribed by this clause (e), substitute nominations shall be made in accordance with the provisions of section 3 of this act.