Section 17-16A-3

Filing of petitions; number of signatures required; form of petitions; decision of state party chairman as to regularity of petitions final.

In order to qualify the name of any person to appear on the ballot at a presidential preference primary, a petition or petitions in support of his candidacy must be filed with the state party chairman of the appropriate political party, hereinafter referred to as "chairman," after March 1 of the year in which the presidential preference primary is to be held and before March 15 of that same year. To comply with this section, a candidate may file a petition or petitions signed by a total of not less than 500 qualified electors of the state, or petitions signed by not less than 50 qualified electors of each congressional district of the state, in which case there shall be a separate petition for each congressional district. The petitions shall be in such form as the chairman may prescribe; provided, that there shall be a space for the county of residence of each signer next to the space provided for his signature. No signature may be counted as valid unless the county of residence of the signer is provided. Each petition shall contain an affirmation under the penalties of perjury that each signer is a qualified elector in his congressional district or in the state, as appropriate. The decision of the chairman as to the regularity of the petitions shall be final.

(Code 1975, §17-18A-3; Acts 1978, No. 691, p. 994, §3; Acts 1979, No. 79-547, p. 994, §1; Acts 1990, No. 90-699, p. 1359, §1.)