nominating petitions; in lieu fee

HB2789 - 572R - I Ver

REFERENCE TITLE:
nominating petitions; in lieu fee

State of Arizona

House of Representatives

Fifty-seventh Legislature

Second Regular Session

2026

HB 2789

Introduced by

Representative
Diaz

AN
ACT

amending section 16-314, Arizona Revised
Statutes; relating to nominating procedures.

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1. Section 16-314, Arizona Revised
Statutes, is amended to read:

START_STATUTE
16-314.

Filing and form of nomination petitions; in lieu fee; exception;
definition

A. Any person
desiring

who desires
to become a candidate at any election and to have
the person's name printed on the official ballot shall file, not less than one
hundred twenty nor more than one hundred fifty days before the primary election
and with the same officer as provided by section 16-311, a nomination
petition in addition to the nomination paper required.

C.

B.
Nomination
petitions shall be captioned "partisan nomination petition" or
"nonpartisan nomination petition", followed by the language of the
petition in substantially the following form, except that if the candidate does
not have an actual residence address, the candidate may use a description of
place of residence and post office address, or, if the candidate's actual
residence address is protected pursuant to section 16-153, a post office
box or private mailbox address in the candidate's political division or
district from which the nomination is sought is sufficient:

Partisan Nomination
Petition

I, the undersigned, a qualified elector of the county of
______________, state of Arizona, and of (here name political division or
district from which the nomination is sought) and a member of the
_______________ party or a person who is registered as no party preference or
independent as the party preference or who is registered with a political party
that is not qualified for representation on the ballot, hereby nominate
___________ who resides at _____________ in the county of ____________ for the
party nomination for the office of _______________ to be voted at the primary
election to be held _______________ as representing the principles of such
party, and I hereby declare that I am qualified to vote for this office and
that I have not signed, and will not sign, any nomination petition for more
persons than the number of candidates necessary to fill such office at the next
ensuing election. I further declare that if I choose to use a post
office box address on this petition, my residence address has not changed since
I last reported it to the county recorder for purposes of updating my voter
registration file.

Nonpartisan Nomination
Petition

I, the undersigned, a qualified elector of the county of
_______________, state of Arizona, and of (here name political division or
district from which the nomination is sought) hereby nominate _______________
who resides at _______________ in the county of _______________ for the office
of ______________ to be voted at the _______________ election to be held
_______________, and hereby declare that I am qualified to vote for this office
and that I have not signed and will not sign any nomination petitions for more
persons than the number of candidates necessary to fill such office at the next
ensuing election.� I further declare that if I choose to use a post office box
address on this petition, my residence address has not changed since I last
reported it to the county recorder for purposes of updating my voter
registration file.

D.

C.
The
nomination petition of a person seeking to fill an unexpired vacant term for
any public office shall designate the expiration date of the term following the
name of the office being sought.

D. Beginning with elections held in
2028, Any person who desires to become a candidate and to have the person's
name printed on the official ballot and who would otherwise be required to file
a partisan or nonpartisan nomination petition pursuant to this section may pay
a filing fee to the filing officer in lieu of submitting a completed nomination
petition.� The secretary of state shall ESTABLISH The filing fee by publishing
the filing fee in the instructions and procedures manual that is issued
pursuant to section 16-452.� The secretary of state also shall publish a form
for the candidate to sign before a notary public and submit to the filing
officer that states that the candidate is paying a filing fee in lieu of
collecting and submitting nomination petition signatures.� On submittal of the
completed form and PAYMENT of the filing fee, a candidate who OTHERWISE
QUALIFIES for the ballot is deemed to have submitted SUFFICIENT NOMINATION
petition signatures, and that candidate's name shall appear on the ballot.�
This subsection does not apply to candidates for UNITED States senator or
representative in Congress or candidates for PRESIDENT and vice president of
the United States.

B.

E.
For
the purposes of this title, "nomination petition" means the form or
forms used for obtaining the required number of signatures of qualified
electors, which is circulated by or on behalf of the person wishing to become a
candidate for a political office.

END_STATUTE