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ELECTIONS IN TOWN MEETING.

CHAPTER I.-Town meetings.

CHAPTER II.-Officers elected in town meeting.

CHAPTER III.-Manner of conducting elections in town

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R. L., Sec. 2644. Who are voters in town meeting.

R. L., Sec. 524.

Women may vote

102. Meetings how warned.

SEC. 98.

Male citizens, twenty-one years of age, whose lists are taken in any town at the annual assessment next preceding a town meeting, or who are exempt from taxation for any cause, shall, while residing in the town, be voters in town meetings.

SEC. 99. Women shall have the same right to vote as in certain cases. men have in all school district meetings, and in the election of school commissioners in towns and cities, and the same right to hold offices relating to school affairs.

R. L., Sec. 2646.

SEC. 100. Section two of chapter fifteen of the General Annual meeting, Statutes is amended so as to read as follows:

when held; if not held. officers may be elected at special meeting.

"A meeting of the inhabitants of each town, who are legal voters in town meetings, shall be held in each town on the first Tuesday of March, annually, for the election of town officers and the transaction of other proper business;

but the failure to hold an annual town meeting, as herein provided, shall not prevent the election of town officers at any subsequent town meeting legally warned and holden."

Annual meeting

SEC. 101. A meeting of such voters shall be held in R. L., Sec. 2645. each town in March annually for the election of officers and may be adjourned the transaction of other business; and it may be adjourned

to another time when the business may be completed.

Town meetings,

SEC. 102. Town meetings shall be warned by the select- R. L., Sec. 2647. men, by a notification set up in three public places in how warned. town at least twelve days before the meeting, setting forth the business to be done and the subjects to be considered at the meeting.

R. L., Sec. 2648, as amended by 1884, No. 67. Hour for holding

towns of more than 10,000 inhabitants.

SEC. 103. In towns, whose population by the last census taken, exceeds ten thousand inhabitants, the annual March or other town meetings shall be warned to meet at nine town meetings in o'clock in the forenoon, and the time for transaction of business other than the election of officers in such meetings shall be two o'clock in the afternoon, and the business transacted shall be confined to the articles specified in the warn ing.

SEC. 104. The selectmen may call special town meet. ings when they judge it necessary, and they shall call such meetings on the application of six voters.

R. L., Sec. 2649. power and duty

Special meetings;

of selectmen to warn.

When office of cant; meetings,

va

SEC. 105. If the offices of any of the selectmen are R. L., Sec. 2650. vacant, those in office may call the meetings; and if selectman there are no selectmen who can call the meetings, they may how called. be called by the town clerk.

Penalty for neg

SEC. 106. If the officers whose duty it is to warn or R. L., Sec. 2651. cause to be warned, town meetings, fail to do so for ten lect to warn. days after receipt of petition addressed to them for that purpose by thirty voters of the town, stating therein the object of the meeting, each such officer shall be fined forty dollars, and forty dollars in addition for every thirty days' neglect to warn or cause to be warned such meeting, such penalties to be be recovered in an action on this statute in the name of either petitioner, one-half to go to the prosecutor and one-half to the town.

SEC. 107. Warnings for town meetings shall be recorded R. L., Sec. 2652.

in the town clerk's office.

Warning to recorded.

be

Duties of town or selectman in opening

Sec. 108. Annual town meetings shall be called to R. L., Sec. 2653. order by the town clerk, or in his absence by one of the clerk selectmen, who shall read the warning and call upon annual meetings. the voters to choose a moderator, and shall preside until the moderator is chosen.

R. L., Sec. 2658. Town officers; term of office.

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SEC. 109. At the annual meeting towns shall choose from among the inhabitants thereof the following town officers, who shall serve until the next annual meeting, and, except the moderator, until others are chosen, unless otherwise provided by law:

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One or more trustees of public moneys.

Three fence viewers.

One or more grand jurors.

One or mere inspectors of leather.

A pound keeper for each pound.

One or more surveyors of wood and inspectors of lumber and shingles.

A surveyor of highways for each district, unless the town elects street commissioners.

An agent to prosecute and defend suits in which the town is interested.

A superintendent of schools, except in towns using the town system.

* In towns of over 10,000 inhabitants, this officer is now appointed by board of civil authority. See acts of 1884, No. 58.

Women eligible

official bond of

woman.

SEC. 110. Women twenty-one years of age may be R. L., Sec. 2659. elected or appointed to the office of town superintendent to certain offices of schools or town clerk of a town if they have resided in married such town one year next preceding such election or appointment. And any bond given by any married woman so elected or appointed shall be as valid against her and may be enforced against her separate property and against the sureties upon such bond in the same manner as though she were sole and unmarried.

Street commis

SEC. 111. Each town may, at its annual meeting, elect R. L., Sec. 3082. three persons as commissioners of streets and highways, sioners. who shall hold office for one year and shall have the care of, and shall make and repair, the highways in such town and expend the moneys raised for that purpose, and shall have the powers and be subject to the liabilities of highway surveyors; and in such case no highway surveyor shall be appointed in the town.

Highway Survey

nated by Select

SEC. 112. The selectmen shall present to the annual B. L., Sec. 2660. meeting for its approval, candidates for surveyors of high- ors to be nomiways when street commissioners are not elected; and the men. surveyors elected shall hold office for one year from the fifteenth day of May succeeding their election.

Highway Survey

ed and removed

SEC. 113. In towns whose population by the last census R. L., Sec. 2661. taken exceeds six thousand inhabitants, the highway sur- ors, how appointveyors shall be appointed by the board of civil authority in towns of over thereof, who shall meet for that purpose at ten o'clock in 6,000 inhabitants. the forenoon on the first Tuesday after the annual March meeting of said towns, instead of being elected as now provided by law; and when in the opinion of the selectmen of any such towns any highway surveyor so appointed is derelict in duty, such highway surveyor may be removed by such board of civil authority, or a majority of said board, and another appointed in his place.

School directors.

SEC. 114. If a town votes to abolish the district system R. L., Sec. 594. it shall, at the same meeting, elect a board of three or six school directors, citizens of such town, one third of whom shall be elected for one year, one-third for two years, and one-third for three years from the close of the school year. At each annual town meeting thereafter the town shall elect successors to those directors whose term of office expires that year, and the term of office of directors so chosen shall commence at the close of the school year and continue for three years. A vacancy in the board may be filled by the selectmen until the next annual town meeting when the town shall elect director for the remainder of the unex

1884, No. 111,
1.
Jurors, grand and
petit.

R. L., Sec. 2701.

Selectman can

pired term. All directors, whether elected or appointed, shall hold office until their successors are elected.

SEC. 115. Members of the board of civil authority present at an annual town meeting shall nominate to the meeting such number of persons for grand and petit jurors, to attend the county court for the year ensuing, as they judge will be the proportion of the town, and they shall be chosen by the town, at such meeting; and the town clerk shall, within five days thereafter, return by mail to the clerk of the county court, his certificate of election of the persons so chosen, therein giving the full name and post office address of each person; and the clerk of the county court shall write the name and post office address of each person, so returned, on a separate piece of thick paper, such pieces of paper to be of uniform size and color, and he shall put them into a box to be kept in his office for that purpose, keeping the names from each town in a separate compartment; and such box shall contain one large compartment into which the names from the respective towns shall successively be placed for the drawing of grand and petit jurors specified in section eight hundred and eightyeight of the Revised Laws; and every person drawn by the Sheriff or his deputy to serve as grand or petit juror, from any fown containing more than two hundred inhabitants, shall be disqualified from again serving as a juror for two years from such drawing. [For election of county commissioner, see Secs. 134-6.]

SEC. 116.

DISQUALIFICATIONS.

A selectman shall not be first constable, col

not hold certain lector of taxes, or town treasurer.

offices.

R. L., Sec. 2702. SEC. 117. No person shall at the same time hold the offices of selectman and lister in any town in this State.

Incompatible offices.

R. L., Sec. 2722.
Treasurer cannot

SEC. 118. A town treasurer shall not be constable or hold certain collector of taxes.

offices.

Collector ineligi

R. L., Sec. 2733. SEC. 119. The collector shall, on or before the first day ble for re-elec- of March in each year, pay over all moneys collected by

tion, when.

him, to the treasuries to which they belong, and settle his account with the treasurers. And the town auditors shall, on or before the first day of March, annually, examine the accounts of the treasurer which he is required to keep with the collector, and shall report the state of such accounts to the annual town meeting. If a collector refuses or neg

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