HB 2308 Summary

• Requires all non-resident and paid circulators to register with the secretary of state before collecting recall petition signatures, with disqualification of signatures from unregistered circulators.

• Establishes circulator eligibility requirements, prohibiting registration for persons convicted of election law violations, felonies involving fraud/forgery/identity theft, or those with prior civil or criminal penalties within five years.

• Creates recall petition signature fraud statute establishing class 1 misdemeanor penalties for fraudulent signature collection, with class 4 felony and five-year campaign participation ban for patterns of fraud (five or more employees/subcontractors convicted in an election cycle).

• Requires filing officers to remove petition sheets lacking stapled time-and-date-marked copies of applications, proper serial numbers, completed notarized affidavits, and signatures from prohibited circulators; limits petition signatures to ten per sheet.

• Establishes venue requirements for recall petition challenges in superior courts and specifies procedures for writ of mandamus actions to compel filing officers to accept or transmit recall petitions.