1. The secretary of state or the election authority shall have specific authority to determine the validity of signatures on petitions filed with his or her office and shall have authority not to count those which are, in his or her opinion, forged or fraudulent or the signatures of persons who are not registered voters.

2. For the purpose of verifying signatures on any new party or independent candidate petition filed with his or her office, the secretary of state may send copies of petition pages to the appropriate election authorities for registration verification. Each election authority receiving a copy of petition pages shall check any signature indicated by the secretary of state against the registration records and return all such copies to the secretary of state no later than the day designated by the secretary of state. The secretary of state shall not designate any deadline for returning copies and certifications which is less than seven days after the copies have been received by the election authority. If the secretary of state or an election authority determines the congressional district number written after the signature of any registered voter is not the congressional district in which the voter resides, the secretary of state or the election authority shall correct the congressional district number on the petition page. Failure of a voter to give his or her correct congressional district number shall not alone be sufficient reason to disqualify his or her signature. Only valid signatures from the county named in the circulator’s affidavit shall be counted on any petition page.

3. The secretary of state or election authority shall have authority to verify the signatures on petitions filed with his or her office by use of random sampling. Random sampling may be used on any petition on which five hundred or more signatures are required. Petitions requiring fewer than five hundred signatures shall have each signature checked and random sampling shall not be used. The random sample of signatures to be verified shall be drawn in such a manner that every signature contained on the filed petition shall be given an equal opportunity to be included in the sample. Such a random sampling shall include an examination of not less than five percent of the signatures so filed.

4. If the random sample verification establishes that the number of valid signatures is less than ninety-five percent of the number of qualified voters needed to find the petition sufficient, the petition shall be deemed to have failed to qualify.

5. If the random sample verification establishes that the number of valid signatures total more than one hundred five percent of the number of qualified voters needed to find the petition sufficient, the petition shall be deemed to qualify in that district.

6. If the random sample verification establishes that the number of valid signatures is more than ninety-five percent but less than one hundred five percent of the number of qualified voters needed to find the petition sufficient, each signature filed shall be examined and verified.

7. The secretary of state is authorized to adopt rules to ensure uniform, complete and accurate checking of petition signatures either by actual counting or random sampling.

8. If copies of petition pages are sent to any local election authority for registration verification under the provisions of this subchapter, the secretary of state’s final determination on the number of valid signatures submitted on the petition from the election authority’s jurisdiction shall be based on the certification made by the election authority.