16-315. Form of petitions; registration of circulators

A. The nomination petitions shall be in substantially the following form:

1. Petitions shall be on paper eleven inches wide and eight and one-half inches long.

2. Petitions shall be headed by a caption stating the purpose of the petition, followed by the body of the petition stating the intent of the petitioners.

3. There shall be ten lines spaced one-half of an inch apart and consecutively numbered one through ten.

4. The signature portion of the petition shall be divided into columns headed by the following titles:

(a) Signature.

(b) Printed name.

(c) Actual residence address, description of place of residence or Arizona post office box address, city or town.

(d) Date of signing.

5. A photograph of the candidate may appear on the nomination petition.

B. The following shall appear on the petition:

Instructions for Circulators

1. All petitions shall be signed by circulator.

2. Circulator is not required to be a resident of this state but otherwise must be qualified to register to vote in this state and, if not a resident of this state, shall register as a circulator with the secretary of state.

3. Circulator's name shall be typed or printed under the circulator's signature.

4. Circulator's actual residence address or, if no street address, a description of residence location shall be included on the petition.

C. The secretary of state shall prepare sample nomination petition forms and distribute the forms to all election officers.

D. Circulators who are not residents of this state must be registered as circulators with the secretary of state before circulating petitions.  The secretary of state shall provide for a method of receiving service of process for those petition circulators who register pursuant to this subsection. The secretary of state shall establish in the instructions and procedures manual issued pursuant to section 16-452 a procedure for registering circulators and receiving service of process.

E. The secretary of state may authorize for statewide and legislative offices the creation, use and submission of petitions prescribed by this section in electronic form if those petitions provide for an appropriate method to verify signatures of petition circulators and signers. The secretary of state may require use of a unique marking system for petition pages, including a bar code, a quick response code or another similar marking system.