7-2-2504. Verification of petition signatures -- county clerk's certification. (1) The county clerk of the county in which the petition provided for in 7-2-2503 must be signed shall compare the signatures of the voters signing the petition with their signatures on the registration books and blanks on file in the clerk's office for the preceding general election. The county clerk may not retain a petition or any part of a petition for a longer period than 2 days for the first 200 signatures and 1 additional day for each 200 additional signatures or fraction of that number on the sheets presented to the clerk. At the expiration of that time, the clerk shall file the petition with the clerk of the district court, with the county clerk's certificate attached to the petition as provided in subsection (2).
(2) After comparing the signatures, the county clerk shall attach to the sheets of the petition containing the signatures a certificate to the district court, substantially as follows:
State of Montana, County of ....
To the honorable district court of the .... judicial district of the state of Montana, in and for the county of .....
I, ...., county clerk of the county of ...., certify that I have compared the signatures on (number of sheets) of the petition for change of name attached with the signatures of voters as they appear on the registration books and blanks in my office. I believe that the signatures of (names of signers), numbering (number of genuine signatures), are genuine. I further certify that the number of genuine signatures attached equals at least 25% of the whole number of votes cast for the office of governor of Montana in the county at the gubernatorial election preceding the circulation of this petition.
...., County Clerk
(Seal)By ....
Deputy ....
(3) The forms in this section are not mandatory, and if substantially followed in any petition, it is sufficient, disregarding clerical and merely technical errors.