§ 31. Nominations

Any qualified elector may be nominated to be a candidate for election to the council, if he has resided in the City for one year immediately preceding the time that his name is submitted to the voters. The name of such an elector shall be printed upon the ballot whenever a petition and a written acceptance of nomination, both in substantially such form as the council prescribes, have been filed in his behalf with the recorder. Such a petition shall be signed by not fewer than 20 electors. No elector shall sign more than one such petition for the same office. If he signs two or more of them for the same office, his signature shall be valid only on the first petition filed. The signatures to a nomination petition need not all be appended to one paper, but to each separate paper of the petition shall be attached an affidavit of the circulator thereof, indicating the number of signers of the paper and stating that each signature appended thereto was made in his presence and is the genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to be. With each signature shall be stated the place of residence of the signer, identified by its street and number or other description sufficient to identify it. All nomination papers comprising a petition shall be assemble and filed with the recorder as one instrument not earlier than 90 nor later than 70 days before the election. The recorder shall make a record of the exact time at which each petition is filed and shall take and preserve the name and address of the person by whom it is filed. Within five days after the filing, the recorder shall notify the candidate and the person who filed the petition whether or not it is found to be signed by the required numbers of qualified electors. If it is found insufficient, the recorder shall return it immediately to the person who filed it, with a statement certifying wherein the petition is insufficient. Within the regular time allowed for the filing of nomination petitions, such a petition may be amended and filed again as a new petition, or a different petition may be filed for the same candidate. Any eligible person placed in nomination as hereinbefore provided shall have his name printed on the ballots for the election if, within five days after notification to him by the recorder of the nomination, an acceptance of nomination is filed with the recorder on his behalf. The nomination petition for a successful candidate for election to the council shall be preserved in the office for which the candidate is elected.