{"data":{"id":"us/25-cfr-81.57","jurisdiction":"us","citation":"25 CFR 81.57","heading":"How do I determine how many signatures are needed for a petition to be valid?","body":"(a) For a tribe whose governing document or charter of incorporation provides for petitioning the Secretary to call a Secretarial election:\n(1) The spokesperson for the petitioners may ask the tribe or the Local Bureau Official how many signatures are required.\n(2) The Local Bureau Official will:\n(i) Contact the tribal governing body to obtain the current number of tribal members, 18 years of age or older, to determine the number of tribal members who must sign a petition as required by the tribe's governing document; and\n(ii) Notify the petitioners' spokesperson how many signatures are required and that the number is valid for 180 days from the date of this notification.\n(b) For a federally recognized tribe adopting a governing document under Federal statute for the first time, the petition must have signatures of 50 percent of the tribal members who are 18 years of age or older.","path":["Title 25—Indians","CHAPTER I—BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR","SUBCHAPTER F—TRIBAL GOVERNMENT","PART 81—SECRETARIAL ELECTION PROCEDURES","Subpart F—Formulating Petitions To Request a Secretarial Election"],"source_url":"https://www.ecfr.gov/api/versioner/v1/full/2026-08-25/title-25.xml","current_through":"2026-08-25","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-08-27T02:24:59Z","sha256":"5dc68162f9d00afada16f02e8bc98384d21367d984549ab51338a1c98265b11b","source_id":"us-cfr","stale":true,"prev":"us/25-cfr-81.56","next":"us/25-cfr-81.58"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}