16:12-10. The annual election of any such parish shall be held on such day as may be designated in its certificate of incorporation, if consistent with the constitution, canons or laws of such church. Notice of the time and place of the annual election shall be given by advertisement set up in open view at the door of the church or usual place of worship, 10 days prior to the election and shall also be read by the rector or officiating minister on the two Sundays next preceding the election, in time of public service.

The rector shall preside, with the right to vote, or if the rector is absent or if no rector is settled in the parish, the meeting shall choose one of the wardens, or if neither of the wardens is present, one of the vestrymembers, or if no vestrymember is present, then some duly qualified voter to act as chairperson. The secretary of the vestry, or in the secretary’s absence a person appointed by the chairperson, shall enter the proceedings in the minute book of the vestry, and shall sign the same together with the chairperson. The qualifications for voters, and for such officers as may be elected by the meeting, shall be as provided from time to time by the constitution and canons of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the diocese in which the parish is located; provided, however, that, at any annual parish meeting held for the election of wardens or vestrymembers, a by-law may be adopted providing that no wardens or vestrymembers who have been duly elected at any parish meeting may succeed themselves, which by-law shall remain in full force and effect until repealed at a subsequent annual parish meeting. The chairperson shall be the judge of the qualifications of the voters, shall receive the votes and declare the result. The election shall be by ballot, and the polls shall remain open for one-half hour, and for such longer time as may be required to receive the ballots of the persons present and ready to vote. Three persons shall constitute a quorum. In case of failure to elect on the first ballot the required number of wardens or vestrymembers to be elected at the meeting, one or more further ballots shall be taken in the same manner.

amended 1949, c.212; 1961, c.114, s.2; 2017, c.151, s.7.