1. Local Governance recommendation

ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OPINION 98-14 May 12, 1998 Page 3 functional equivalent of that office, before four p.m. on the thirtieth day after the final resolution is adopted. Within ten days after the filing of the petition, the county auditor shall examine the peti tion and ascertain from the voter list whether the petition contains the signatures of a sufficient number of qualified electors. Any insufficiencies may be cured by the filing of an amended petition within ten days after the county auditor declares the insufficiency. The final resolution is suspended upon a determination by the county auditor that the petition was timely filed and contains the signatures of a sufficient number of qualified electors. The board of county commissioners shall reconsider the referred resolution, and if it does not repeal the resolution in its entirety, shall submit the resolution to a vote of the qualified electors of the county at the next regular election. The county auditor shall cause the complete text of the resolution to be published in the official newspaper of the county, not less than two weeks nor more than thirty days, before the date of the election. If a majority of the qualified electors voting on the question approves the resolution, the plan incorporated in the resolution is effective and becomes opel':ative according to its Le:nns as if it had not been suspended. N.D.C.C. ~ 11-10.2-02 (1). This statute provides that a board of county commissioners may pass a resolution concerning the status of certain county offices without the requirement of an election except if the public presents a petition to demand such an election. Article VII of the North Dakota Constitution concerns political subdivisions, and was enacted by the voters in 1982. See 1981 N.D. Sess. Laws ch. 665, 1983 N.D. Sess. Laws ch. 718. Article VII contains a procedure to put certain issues on the ballot: Questions of the form of government to be adopted by any county or on the elimination or reinstatement of elective county offices may be placed upon the ballot by petition of electors of the county equal in number to twenty-five percent of the votes cast in the county for the office of governor at the preceding gubernatorial election.