2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE SIXTEEN - Election and Registration (§§ 1 — 4255) › Subtitle 6 - Election Code (2011) › Chapter 407 - Candidacies and Primaries (§§ 4111 — 4137) › § 4122 - Endorsement petitions for primaries and independent candidacies

(1) Any voter who wishes to run in a primary, in addition to meeting all the requirements set forth by law and regulations, shall file with the Commission the number of endorsement petitions required by this subtitle for the elective public office to which he/she intends to aspire.
(a) The number of endorsement petitions for primaries shall, in no case, exceed three thousand (3,000), except in the case of aspirants to the offices of Governor or Resident Commissioner, whose number of endorsement petitions shall not exceed eight thousand (8,000).
(b) Aspirants to the office of mayor shall present four percent (4%) of the total sum of all votes polled by the candidate for mayor of his political party for the concerned municipality in the preceding General Election, or three thousand (3,000) endorsement petitions, whichever is less.
(c) When an aspirant to the office of mayor files his/her candidacy together with a group of candidates for municipal legislators, it shall be understood that they represent a single slate and, therefore, the latter shall not be required to file endorsement petitions for the primaries. However, the endorsement petitions of a candidate for municipal legislator who does not belong to a single slate shall be calculated at three percent (3%) of the total sum of all votes polled by the candidates of his/her political party in the preceding general elections for the elective office concerned, divided by the number of candidates nominated by said political party.
(d) Aspirants to district senator or senator-at-large and district representative or representative-at-large shall submit four percent (4%) of the total sum of all votes polled by the candidates of his political party in the preceding General Election for the elective public office concerned, divided by the amount of candidates nominated by said political party, or three thousand (3,000) endorsement petitions, whichever is less. Aspirants to district representatives shall present four percent (4%) of the total sum of votes polled by the candidate of his political party in the preceding General Election, or three thousand (3,000) endorsement petitions, whichever is less.
(2) Parties by petition and independent candidates shall use, as a basis to calculate the amount of endorsement petitions for primaries that they are required to file, three percent (3%) of the valid votes polled by the candidate elected in the preceding General Election for the elective public office concerned. For the offices of senator and representative-at-large, as well as for district senator, district representative, and municipal legislator of said parties or independent candidates, three percent (3%) shall be calculated using as a basis the total sum of all valid votes polled by the candidates in the preceding General Election for the elective public office concerned.
(a) Any person who commits fraud by filing endorsement petitions for primaries with false information, forging a signature on said endorsement petition, or including unauthorized information about a voter or aspirant on said petition or on a related report, as established in Chapter XII of this Act, shall incur a misdemeanor. Any candidate who intentionally files endorsement petitions with false information or forged signatures may be disqualified. The primaries commission of the political party concerned shall have twenty (20) days to pass judgment on the validity of the petitions filed. Any petition that is not rejected during said term shall be deemed to be accepted and accredited to the aspirant who filed it. Aspirants shall only have seven (7) days from the date on which the rejected petitions were returned to substitute said petitions.
(b) In no case may more than one hundred twenty percent (120%) of the required petitions be filed. No aspirant may submit more than fifty percent (50%) of the maximum number of petitions required during the last fifteen (15) days of the period for filing endorsement petitions for primaries. The endorsements required by this subtitle shall be received and forwarded to the Commission from the date of certification of the candidacy by the political party or from the time the independent candidacy is requested, until February 15 th of the General Election year. The aspirant or candidate shall have a fifteen (15)-day period to substitute any endorsement petitions rendered invalid by the Commission.
History —June 1, 2011, No. 78, § 8.012; Nov. 21, 2011, No. 230, § 20; Dec. 22, 2014, No. 239, § 31.