Primary elections: petitions: signatures.

Existing law requires a person who seeks to have his or her name printed on the ballot used at the direct primary to file with the county elections official a declaration of candidacy and nomination papers. Existing law requires a person to pay a fee to file his or her declaration of candidacy. Existing law permits a candidate to submit a petition containing a specified number of signatures of registered voters in lieu of the filing fee required for the declaration of candidacy. This bill would require the elections official to reduce the number of signatures required on a petition in lieu of a filing fee for a special election that is held to fill a vacancy by the same proportion as the reduction in time for the candidate to collect signatures if the number of days for a candidate to collect the signatures is less than the number of days that a candidate would have to collect signatures on a petition at a regular election for the same office. However, the elections official would not be permitted to reduce the number of signatures to less than 100 for a special election to fill a vacancy in the office of Representative in Congress, state Senator, or Member of the Assembly.