16-314. Filing and form of nomination petitions; definition

A. Any person desiring to become a candidate at any election and to have the person's name printed on the official ballot shall file, not less than one hundred twenty nor more than one hundred fifty days before the primary election and with the same officer as provided by section 16-311, a nomination petition in addition to the nomination paper required.

B. For the purposes of this title, "nomination petition" means the form or forms used for obtaining the required number of signatures of qualified electors, which is circulated by or on behalf of the person wishing to become a candidate for a political office.

C. Nomination petitions shall be captioned "partisan nomination petition" or "nonpartisan nomination petition", followed by the language of the petition in substantially the following form, except that if the candidate does not have an actual residence address, the candidate may use a description of place of residence and post office address, or, if the candidate's actual residence address is protected pursuant to section 16-153, a post office box or private mailbox address in the candidate's political division or district from which the nomination is sought is sufficient:

Partisan Nomination Petition

I, the undersigned, a qualified elector of the county of ______________, state of Arizona, and of (here name political division or district from which the nomination is sought) and a member of the _______________ party or a person who is registered as no party preference or independent as the party preference or who is registered with a political party that is not qualified for representation on the ballot, hereby nominate ___________ who resides at _____________ in the county of ____________ for the party nomination for the office of _______________ to be voted at the primary election to be held _______________ as representing the principles of such party, and I hereby declare that I am qualified to vote for this office and that I have not signed, and will not sign, any nomination petition for more persons than the number of candidates necessary to fill such office at the next ensuing election. I further declare that if I choose to use a post office box address on this petition, my residence address has not changed since I last reported it to the county recorder for purposes of updating my voter registration file.

Nonpartisan Nomination Petition

I, the undersigned, a qualified elector of the county of _______________, state of Arizona, and of (here name political division or district from which the nomination is sought) hereby nominate _______________ who resides at _______________ in the county of _______________ for the office of ______________ to be voted at the _______________ election to be held _______________, and hereby declare that I am qualified to vote for this office and that I have not signed and will not sign any nomination petitions for more persons than the number of candidates necessary to fill such office at the next ensuing election.  I further declare that if I choose to use a post office box address on this petition, my residence address has not changed since I last reported it to the county recorder for purposes of updating my voter registration file.

D. The nomination petition of a person seeking to fill an unexpired vacant term for any public office shall designate the expiration date of the term following the name of the office being sought.