Article 3. Election of California Public Utilities Code >> Division 7. >> Chapter 2. >> Article 3.

The special election shall be called by ordinance by each board of supervisors. The ordinance shall specify the purpose and time of the election, establish the election precincts, and designate the polling places and the names of the election officers for each precinct. The election shall be held on the next established election date not less than 74 days after completion of publication of the ordinance.

The ordinance calling the election shall be published in the unincorporated territory pursuant to Section 6062 of the Government Code. If no newspaper is printed, published, and circulated in the territory, publication shall be made in a newspaper printed and published elsewhere in the county and deemed most likely to give notice to the electors of the territory. The notice of election shall also be posted in at least two public places in each precinct within each unincorporated territory in which the election is held for at least 10 days prior to the election.

Within five days after the district formation election has been called, the legislative body which has called the election shall transmit, by registered mail, a written notification of the election call to the executive officer of the local agency formation commission of the county or principal county in which the territory or major portion of the territory of the proposed district is located. Such written notice shall include the name and a description of the proposed district, and may be in the form of a certified copy of the resolution adopted by the legislative body calling the district formation election. The executive officer, within five days after being notified that a district formation election has been called, shall submit to the commission, for its approval or modification, an impartial analysis of the proposed district formation. The impartial analysis shall not exceed 500 words in length and shall include a specific description of the boundaries of the district proposed to be formed. The local agency formation commission, within five days after the receipt of the executive officer's analysis, shall approve or modify the analysis and submit it to the officials in charge of conducting the district formation election.

The board of supervisors or any member or members of the board authorized by the board, or any individual voter or bona fide association of citizens entitled to vote on the district formation proposition, or any combination of such voters and associations of citizens, may file a written argument for or a written argument against the proposed district formation. Arguments shall not exceed 300 words in length and shall be filed with the officials in charge of conducting the election not less than 54 days prior to the date of the district formation election.

If more than one argument for or more than one argument against the proposed district formation is filed with the election officials within the time prescribed, such election officials shall select one of the arguments for printing and distribution to the voters. In selecting the arguments, the election officials shall give preference and priority in the order named to the arguments of the following:
  (a) The board of supervisors or any member or members of the board authorized by the board.
  (b) Individual voters or bona fide associations of citizens or a combination of such voters and associations.

The officials in charge of conducting the election shall cause a ballot pamphlet concerning the district formation proposition to be voted on to be printed and mailed to each voter entitled to vote on the district formation question. The ballot pamphlet shall contain the following in the order prescribed:
  (a) The complete text of the proposition.
  (b) The impartial analysis of the proposition prepared by the local agency formation commission.
  (c) The argument for the proposed district formation.
  (d) The argument against the proposed district formation. The election officials shall mail a ballot pamphlet to each voter entitled to vote in the district formation election at least 10 days prior to the date of the election. The ballot pamphlet is "official matter" within the meaning of Section 13303 of the Elections Code.

The election shall be held and conducted, the returns canvassed, and the result declared by the board of supervisors in the manner provided by general law for such elections in the particulars in which provision is made therefor, and in all other respects in the manner provided by law for the holding of special elections within such counties.

The proposition submitted at the election shall be stated upon the ballot substantially as follows:

"Shall ________ public utility district (naming it) be organized pursuant to Division 7 of the Public Utilities Code. Yes ( ) No ( )"

Within five days after the result of the election is declared, and the order is made where required, the chairman of the board of supervisors of each county in which the election is held shall make and execute a certificate, signed by him as such official and authenticated under the seal of the county, setting forth the proposition submitted to the electors, the fact of such submission, and the result of the election as so declared. The certificate shall be made and executed in duplicate, and shall be delivered in duplicate without delay to the board of supervisors of the county in which the proposed district, or the greater part of its population, is situated, or to the clerk of such board.