§12-4  Nomination papers; qualifications ofsigners.  (a)  No person shall sign the nomination papers of more than onecandidate, partisan or nonpartisan, for the same office, unless there is morethan one office in a class in which case no person shall sign papers for morethan the actual number of offices in a class.  Nomination papers shall beconstrued in this regard according to priority of filing, and the name of anyperson appearing thereon shall be counted only so long as this provision is notviolated, and not thereafter.

(b)  Names on nomination papers shall not becounted, unless the signer is a registered voter and is eligible to vote forthe candidate.  The chief election officer or clerk shall use the mostcurrently compiled general county register available at the time the nominationpaper is presented for filing to determine the eligibility of the registeredvoters to sign for the candidate.  Voter registration affidavits that have notbeen entered into the voter register by the clerk shall not be considered oraccepted for this check.  At the time of filing, the chief election officer orclerk may reject the candidate's nomination paper for lack of sufficientsigners who are eligible to vote for the candidate.

(c)  Any registered voter who, after signing anomination paper, seeks to withdraw the voter's signature shall do so byproviding written notice to the chief election officer, or clerk in the case ofa county office, any time before the filing of the candidate's nominationpaper; provided that the notice is received by the chief election officer, orclerk in the case of a county office, no later than 4:30 p.m. on the fourthbusiness day prior to the close of filing pursuant to section 12-6.  Thewritten notice shall include the voter's name, social security number,residence address, date of birth, the voter's signature, the name of thecandidate, and a statement that the voter wishes to remove the voter'ssignature from the candidate's nomination paper.  Any request by a registeredvoter to remove the voter's signature from a candidate's nomination paper thatis received by the chief election officer, or clerk in the case of a countyoffice, after the candidate's nomination paper has been filed or after 4:30p.m. on the fourth business day prior to the close of filing shall not beaccepted.

(d)  Within twenty-four hours upon receipt of awritten notice pursuant to subsection (c), the chief election officer, or clerkin the case of a county office, shall send written notice via registered mailto the candidate that the voter requested to have the voter's signature removedfrom the candidate's nomination paper and that the signature of the voter shallnot be counted. [L 1970, c 26, pt of §2; am L 1974, c 34, §2(a); am L 1996, c173, §5; am L 1997, c 288, §2]