Filing fee petitions may be rejected for the following reasons:

     (1) The petition is not in the proper form;

     (2) The petition clearly bears insufficient signatures;

     (3) The petition is not accompanied by a declaration of candidacy;

     (4) The time within which the petition and the declaration of candidacy could have been filed has expired.

     If the petition is accepted, the officer with whom it is filed shall canvass the signatures contained on it and shall reject the signatures of those persons who are not registered voters and the signatures of those persons who are not registered to vote within the jurisdiction of the office for which the filing fee petition is filed. He or she shall additionally reject any signature that appears on the filing fee petitions of two or more candidates for the same office and shall also reject, each time it appears, the name of any person who signs the same petition more than once.

     If the officer with whom the petition is filed refuses to accept the petition or refuses to certify the petition as bearing sufficient valid signatures, the person filing the petition may appeal that action to the superior court. The application for judicial review shall take precedence over other cases and matters and shall be speedily heard and determined.

[2006 c 206 § 5; 2004 c 271 § 161.]