§ 9-410 — Primary petition forms for candidacies for nomination to municipal office or election as town committee members. Signatures. Circulation.

Connecticut § 9-410

• Jurisdiction: Connecticut
• Title 9: Elections
• Ch. 153: Nominations and Political Parties

Text

(a) The petition form for candidacies for nomination to municipal office or for election as members of town committees shall be prescribed by the Secretary of the State and provided by the registrar of the municipality in which the candidacy is to be filed or duplicate petition pages shall be produced in accordance with section 9-409, and signatures shall be obtained only on such forms or such duplicate petition pages. Such form shall include, at the top of the form and in bold print, the following: WARNING IT IS A CRIME TO SIGN THIS PETITION IN THE NAME OF ANOTHER PERSON WITHOUT LEGAL AUTHORITY TO DO SO AND YOU MAY NOT SIGN THIS PETITION IF YOU ARE NOT AN ELECTOR. The form shall include thereon a statement of instructions to persons using the form and shall indicate the date and time by which it shall be filed and the person with whom it shall be filed. The form shall provide spaces for the names and addresses of the candidates, the offices to which nomination is sought or the positions to which election is sought and the political party holding the primary, and shall provide lines for the signatures, street addresses, dates of birth and the printing of the names of enrolled party members supporting the person or persons on behalf of whose candidacy the petition is used. Only as many candidates may be proposed in any one primary petition for the same office or position as are to be nominated or chosen by such party for such office or position; but any one primary petition may propose as many candidates for different offices or positions as there are nominations to be made or positions to be filled. (b) The names of enrolled party members signing a primary petition need not all be on one sheet but may be on several sheets, but no person shall sign more than one petition page for the same candidate or candidates. Any person who signs a name other than the person's own to a primary petition filed under the provisions of this section or who signs a name other than the person's own as circulator of such a petition shall be fined not more than one hundred dollars or imprisoned not more than one year or both. Each such sheet shall indicate the candidate or candidates supported, the offices or positions sought and the political party the nomination of which is sought or which is holding the primary for election of town committee members. No page of such a petition shall contain the names of enrolled party members residing in different municipalities and any page thereof which has been certified by the registrars of two or more municipalities shall be rejected by the registrar. Withdrawal of petition signatures shall not be permitted. (c) Each circulator of a primary petition page shall be an enrolled party member of a municipality in this state who is entitled to vote. Each petition page shall contain a statement signed by the registrar of the municipality in which such circulator is an enrolled party member attesting that the circulator is an enrolled party member in such municipality. Unless such a statement by the registrar appears on each page so submitted, the registrar shall reject such page. No candidate for the nomination of a party for a municipal office or the position of town committee member shall circulate any petition for another candidate or another group of candidates contained in one primary petition for the nomination of such party for the same office or position, and any petition page circulated in violation of this provision shall be rejected by the registrar. No person shall circulate petitions for more than the maximum number of candidates to be nominated by a party for the same office or position, and any petition page circulated in violation of this provision shall be rejected by the registrar. Each separate sheet of such petition shall contain a statement as to the authenticity of the signatures thereon and the number of such signatures, and shall be signed under the penalties of false statement by the person who circulated the same, setting forth such circulator's address and the town in which such circulator is an enrolled party member and attesting that each person whose name appears on such sheet signed the same in person in the presence of such circulator, that the circulator either knows each such signer or that the signer satisfactorily identified the signer to the circulator and that the spaces for candidates supported, offices or positions sought and the political party involved were filled in prior to the obtaining of the signatures. Each separate sheet of such petition shall also be acknowledged before an appropriate person as provided in section 1-29 . Any sheet of a petition filed with the registrar which does not contain such a statement by the circulator as to the authenticity of the signatures thereon, or upon which the statement of the circulator is incomplete in any respect, or which does not contain the certification hereinbefore required by the registrar of the town in which the circulator is an enrolled party member, shall be rejected by the registrar. Any individual proposed as a candidate in any primary petition may serve as a circulator of the pages of such petition, provided such individual's service as circulator does not violate any provision of this section.

Legislative History

(June, 1955, S. 592d; November, 1955, S. N75; 1957, P.A. 518, S. 22; March, 1958, P.A. 27, S. 22; 1958 Rev., S. 9-103; 1963, P.A. 17, S. 38; 525, S. 2; 1971, P.A. 871, S. 76; P.A. 76-40; P.A. 78-125, S. 3; P.A. 82-426, S. 10, 14; P.A. 87-472, S. 6; P.A. 93-384, S. 13; P.A. 99-276, S. 12, 15; P.A. 00-66, S. 25; P.A. 03-241, S. 30.) History: 1963 acts restated previous provisions, substituted “primary” for “nominating” petition where appearing, added penalties for false signing and a proviso that a candidate named on any primary petition is not prevented from serving as a circulator; 1971 act changed “penalties of perjury” to “penalties of false statement”; P.A. 76-40 substituted in circulator's attestation “certified to the municipal clerk” for “selected”; P.A. 78-125 added prohibition on candidate's circulating petitions for another candidate or group of candidates contained in one petition for the same office or for anyone to circulate petitions for more than the maximum number to be nominated by a party for the same office, petition pages circulated in violation of prohibition to be rejected by the registrar and further provided that each separate sheet contain statement as to the number of signatures thereon and for acknowledgment of each separate sheet; P.A. 82-426 amended section to conform to change in time for petition availability made in Sec. 9-409; P.A. 87-472 required petition form for candidates for election as convention delegates to include spaces for information on candidates supported by slate; P.A. 93-384 allowed petition form to be “duplicate pages produced in accordance with section 9-409” and required form to provide lines for dates of birth of enrolled party members supporting person or persons on behalf of whose candidacy petition is used; P.A. 99-276 required petition forms to provide lines for the printing of names of enrolled party members, effective January 1, 2000; P.A. 00-66 divided section into Subsecs. and made technical changes; P.A. 03-241 deleted provisions re petitions for delegate candidacies and made conforming changes throughout, amended Subsec. (a) to require petition form to include warning, and amended Subsec. (c) to eliminate requirement that each circulator be entitled to vote in primary for which candidacy is being filed, effective January 1, 2004, and applicable to primaries and elections held on or after that date. Subsec. (c): Subsec. requires that all petitions obtained by a circulator be invalidated when the circulator is seeking signatures for one mayoral candidate and then, the same circulator, at a later point in time, seeks signatures on a petition for a different candidate to the same office; “candidate” includes placeholder or straw candidates. 284 C. 141. Legislative history that purpose of statute was to prevent candidates from engaging in tactics that had the effect of siphoning votes from a strong rival candidate to a weaker rival supports interpretation that when a person has circulated petition pages for more than the maximum number of candidates to be nominated by a party for the same office or position, the registrar must reject any petition page circulated by that person, regardless of when it was circulated; nothing in Subsec. or other statutes governing election procedures makes any distinction between bona fide candidates and placeholder candidates and the registrar must presume that all candidates who submit candidate consent forms are bona fide candidates and must treat all petitions filed on their behalf the same for purposes of applying Subsec. Id., 554. Because meaning of challenged portion of statute prohibiting person circulating petitions for more than maximum number of candidates to be nominated by a party for same office or position is clear from statute's purpose, practical application and legislative history, it is not unconstitutionally vague, and although it implicates core political speech, burden it imposes is slight and since it furthers important state interests it does not violate right to free speech or association. Id., 573.