§ 30. Town officers

   (a) Nomination and election. -- Town officers shall be nominated by a certificate of nomination filed by each candidate, with the county governing body, giving in each instance the name and residence address of the candidate, together with a statement of the particular office to which he aspires. Thereupon, the county governing body, together with the board of supervisors of elections for the county, shall prepare ballots or the voting machines so as to permit the registered voters of the particular area to vote upon the several candidates who are so nominated. The election of officers for the municipal corporation shall be arranged for and conducted at the same time and at the same place or places as the referendum election on the question of incorporation, and subject generally to the same procedures and practices. A vote cast against the proposed incorporation of the municipal corporation shall not be held to bar the voter from expressing his choices among the nominees for the several offices, and if less than a majority of those who vote on the question of incorporation cast their votes in favor thereof, the votes cast for election to the several offices shall be null and void and of no effect whatsoever.

(b) Tally and certification of results of election. -- The board of supervisors of elections, and its clerks, judges of election and subordinates, shall tally the results of the votes cast for candidates for office, and shall certify them along with the tally on the question of incorporation, to the county governing body.

(c) Who proclaimed elected; tenure, powers, etc. -- Any person who receives a plurality of the votes cast for any particular office, whether or not he receives a majority of all the votes cast for that office, shall be publicly proclaimed by the county governing body to have been elected thereto. The persons so named by proclamation shall at the effective time for the charter become the several respective officers of the municipal corporation. Each officer shall continue to hold such position until regularly superseded by a new elective officer, elected as may be provided in the charter of the municipal corporation; and during such period he shall be taken and accepted in all respects as the elected officer of the municipal corporation in his respective position, with the powers, authority and duties as set forth and prescribed in the charter.

(d) When board or council may appoint officer. -- If no person is nominated for an office in the government of the municipal corporation, or if a person elected thereto is unable to assume his office, or if for any other reason no person is elected to fill an office, the county governing body shall name a resident of the particular area to the office, and upon assuming it he shall hold it in all respects as if regularly elected thereto as in this section provided.

(e) Qualifications. -- No person shall be either nominated or elected to any office in the government of the municipal corporation unless he qualifies under whatever requirements may be specified for that office according to the charter proposed for the municipal corporation.

HISTORY: 1955, ch. 423; 1990, ch. 659, § 2; 1998, ch. 678, § 1.