§ 1-5004 — Notice of petition to move county seat

Public notice shall be given of the intention to circulate a petition praying for an election for the removal of the county seat of any county from its then present location to some other point within said county, and in said petition designated, at least 10 days before the same is circulated, by publication in some newspaper printed in said county, and by posting 3 printed notices in 3 public places at the county seat, one of which shall be placed on the door of the county seat building, and a like number at the place to which the county seat is proposed to be removed, in which notices the intent of such petition shall be set forth; and all signers to such petition procured before such notice is given or procured, 6 months before the first day of September next following shall be void, and stricken from such petition; and whenever such petition or petitions addressed to the circuit court of such county, and stating the time when such election shall be held, shall be signed by a number of legal voters of said county, at general elections, who are not residents of the city or township (if the county seat is not in a city) in which the county seat is located, equal in number to two-fifths of all the votes cast in said county at the last preceding presidential election therein, and shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the circuit court of said county, not less than 40 nor more than 80 days before the first day of the next September such petition shall be deemed a proposal to remove the county seat of such county, and the point designated in said petition shall be deemed and taken as fixed by said petition, in pursuance of law, whenever the court shall order an election to such point as hereinafter provided, as the point to which it is proposed to remove the county seat of such county. There shall also be filed in the office of said clerk, with said petitions, an affidavit of 3 legal voters of said county, stating whether or not the point named in the said petition or petitions, to which it is proposed to remove the county seat of such county, is nearer to or further from the center of such county than the county seat; which affidavit may be traversed by the affidavit of any other 3 legal voters of said county, within 10 days from the filing thereof; and if so traversed the court shall, at such time during the said month of September as such court shall fix upon after hearing evidence in the case, decide whether or not the point to which it is proposed to remove the county seat is nearer to or further from the center of said county than the county seat.

Legislative History

(Source: P.A. 86-962.)