(a) At any regular meeting of a city council held prior to the date on which the Secretary of State conducts the randomized alphabet drawing applicable to the regular municipal election under Section 13112, or, under Section 13113, applicable to a special election called to fill a vacancy on the city council, the city council may, by resolution, provide for the rotation on the ballot of the names of candidates for any elective city office.

(b) A resolution adopted pursuant to subdivision (a) shall specify which regular statewide election precincts or, if precincts have been consolidated for purposes of the city election, which consolidated precincts, shall constitute each cluster of precincts for purposes of the rotation of candidates’ names on the ballot.

(c) (1) As used in this section, a “cluster” shall consist of one or more precincts which need not be contiguous. The clusters of precincts shall be numbered in consecutive order for purposes of ballot rotation of candidates’ names, and the resolution shall list the clusters by number and identify which precincts are in each cluster.

(2) No cluster of precincts shall contain a number of registered voters which is more than 10 percent greater or lesser than the average number of registered voters for a cluster as of the most recent estimate by the county elections official of the number of registered voters in each regular precinct in the city prior to the adoption of the resolution. The resolution shall set forth the total number of registered voters in each cluster.

(d) A resolution adopted pursuant to subdivision (a) shall specify that, in the cluster designated as cluster number one, the names shall appear on the ballot in the order determined by the Secretary of State’s randomized alphabet drawing. For each successive cluster, the resolution shall specify the manner of determining the order of the candidates’ names by applying the following:

(1) If the number of candidates for an office is equal to or less than the number of clusters, in cluster number two and each successive cluster, the name appearing first in the last preceding cluster shall be placed last, the order of the other names remaining unchanged.

(2) If the number of candidates for an office is greater than the number of clusters, the former shall be divided by the latter. If the resulting quotient is a mixed number and the fractional part of the mixed number is less than one-half, the fraction shall be discarded. If the fractional part of the mixed number is one-half or greater, the quotient shall be raised to the next largest whole number. The whole number that results from this process shall be the number of candidates that, in cluster number two and each successive cluster, shall be taken from the beginning of the list and placed at the end of the list, the order of the other names remaining unchanged.

(e) (1) No city may provide for rotation of candidates’ names on the ballot for a particular election unless the resolution authorizing it, in accordance with this section, is adopted by the city council at a regular meeting, at which the city elections official has provided cost estimates of this rotation, prior to the date of the randomized alphabet drawing applicable to the election.

(2) A city council resolution that provides for rotation of candidates’ names pursuant to this section for any election which is consolidated with any county or state election shall also provide for the payment of computer programming, formatting, preparation, and all similar related administrative costs associated with development of the ballot on which those names appear.

(Enacted by Stats. 1994, Ch. 920, Sec. 2.)