When there is filed with the secretary of state a petition signed by fifteen per cent of the electors of the judicial district as determined by the total number of votes cast for governor at the preceding election in the district, requesting the resignation of a United States district judge for the district of Arizona, the secretary of state shall submit to the electors at the next ensuing general election occurring not less than sixty days after the petition is filed, the question whether the electors request the resignation of the judge. The petition shall contain a statement of not more than two hundred words setting forth the reasons for the request. The judge against whom the petition is filed shall be immediately notified by the secretary of state of the filing, and there shall be printed upon the ballot the statement in the petition, and, at the request of the judge, a statement by him of not more than two hundred words.