(a) Parties wishing to petition for a recall referendum in an eradication zone shall notify the commissioner of their intent in writing. No recall referendum may be held in an eradication zone in which a recall or establishment referendum has been held within the preceding two years. If the two-year prohibition period applies, a petition drive conducted under this section may begin no sooner than nine months before the expiration of the two-year period.
(b) The department shall develop and make available a petition form for the party conducting the petition drive. The completed form must include:
  (1) certification by the person signing the petition that the person is an eligible cotton grower or a person with the authority to sign for the grower in the eradication zone by having cotton production or sharing in the proceeds of cotton production in the current crop year;
  (2) the complete name and address of the eligible cotton grower; and
  (3) the date signed.
(c) Only one signature or petition form per grower may be gathered.
(d) Signatures that are dated before the date the petition process starts or the date allowed for the petitioning process to begin, in accordance with subsection (a) of this section, are invalid.
(e) Grower eligibility to sign a petition shall be determined as follows.
  (1) If the petitioning process commences prior to or after traditional cotton production in the eradication zone, the immediately preceding cotton crop year information as maintained by the United States Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency (FSA) determines eligibility for having a grower's name on the petition.
  (2) If a petition drive crosses crop years, the commissioner shall use the most current eligible list of growers as maintained by the FSA, and shall notify the petitioning party of the appropriate date when the eligibility list changes. Thus, if a grower farmed in a year other than the year determined to be the eligible year, that signature or petition form will not be valid.
(f) Upon receipt of the notice of intent to petition, the department shall notify the petitioning party of the eligible voter/grower list that will be used to determine if the total number of grower signatures or petition forms meets or exceeds 30% of growers in the zone, as required by the Texas Agriculture Code (Code), §74.112(f).
(g) Completed petitions may be filed with the department either by sending to the department by certified mail, return receipt requested, or by hand-delivery to the department's headquarters in Austin. The filing date of the petition shall be the date the petition is actually received by the department. Signatures may not be added to or withdrawn from a petition, once filed with the department.
(h) The petitioning party must certify that the documents submitted to the department for review have been alphabetized, if on individual petition forms, and that they have been screened to eliminate possible duplicates. In addition, the petitioning party must attest in an affidavit that all signatures are valid according to the agreed upon eligibility list. If, upon review, greater than 10% of the signatures or petition forms are not in compliance with this section, the petition will be deemed null and void and will be rejected.
(i) Once a petition is received by the department, department staff shall review the petition for compliance with the 30% requirement. The commissioner, at the commissioner's discretion, may appoint a committee to review the petition.
(j) Within 21 days of receipt of the petition, the department shall notify the petitioning party of a decision. Should the petition meet all the requirements of this section, the department shall set a referendum date within 90 days of the date the petition was received by the department.
(k) If a referendum of growers is held, the department shall conduct the referendum in the same manner as other referenda conducted under the Code, Chapter 74, Subchapter D and this subchapter.

Source Note: The provisions of this §3.11 adopted to be effective November 24, 1997, 22 TexReg 11082; amended to be effective June 26, 2023, 48 TexReg 3405