Vermont Statutes Title 17 Sec. 2681
Terms Used In Vermont Statutes Title 17 Sec. 2681
- Candidate: means an individual who has taken any affirmative action to become a candidate for public office. See
- Election: means the procedure whereby the voters of this State, or any of its political subdivisions, select persons to fill public offices or act on public questions. See
- filed: means deposited in the regularly maintained office of the official with whom the filing is to be made. See
- following: when used by way of reference to a section of the law shall mean the next preceding or following section. See
- Local election: means any election that deals with the selection of persons to fill public office or the settling of public questions solely within a single municipality. See
- Municipality: shall include a city, town, town school district, incorporated school or fire district or incorporated village, and all other governmental incorporated units. See
- Person: means any individual, business entity, labor organization, public interest group, or other organization, incorporated or unincorporated. See
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States may apply to the District of Columbia and any territory and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See
- Town: includes "city. See
- Town clerk: means a town officer elected pursuant to section 2646 of this title or otherwise elected or appointed by law and performing those duties prescribed by 24 Vt. See
- Voter: means an individual who is qualified to vote in an election in this State or a political subdivision of this State, and whose name is registered on the checklist of a political subdivision of the State. See
§ 2681. Nominations; petitions; consents
(a)(1)(A) Nominations of the municipal officers shall be by petition. The petition shall be filed with the municipal clerk, together with the endorsement, if any, of any party or parties in accordance with the provisions of this title, not later than 5:00 p.m. on the sixth Monday preceding the day of the election, which shall be the filing deadline.
(B) A candidate shall be registered to vote in the town he or she is seeking office at or before the time of filing the petition.
(2) The candidate shall also file a written consent to the printing of the candidate’s name on the ballot on or before the filing deadline for petitions as set forth in subdivision (1) of this subsection.
(3) A petition shall contain the name of only one candidate.
(b) A petition shall contain at least 30 valid signatures of voters of the municipality or one percent of the legal voters of the municipality, whichever is less. The candidate, prior to circulating his or her petitions, shall print on them his or her name as it appears on the voter checklist and shall indicate clearly on them which office he or she is seeking. If there are different lengths of term available for an office, the candidate must indicate clearly the length of term, as well.
(c) The town clerk shall make petition forms and consent forms available. Petition forms shall be sufficient if they are in substantially the following form:
STATE OF VERMONT
………………… County
The undersigned hereby petition the town clerk and other town officers of the Town of …………………….. , County of …………………….. , Vermont that
………………………………………………………………………….
(Name of Candidate —— Nominee)
be a nominee for election to the office of
………………………………………………………………………….
(Name of Office)
at the local election to be held in the town on the …………….. day of ……………………… , 20 …………… . We certify that we are presently voters of that town.
NAME/SIGNATURE STREET ADDRESS
…………………………………..
…………………………………..
…………………………………..
…………………………………..
…………………………………..
…………………………………..
…………………………………..
…………………………………..
(d) A person consenting to be nominated may withdraw by notifying the municipal clerk in writing no later than 5:00 p.m. on the Wednesday after the filing deadline.
(e) The officer receiving the petitions shall immediately proceed to examine them to ascertain whether they conform to the provisions of this subchapter. If found not to conform, he or she shall state in writing on the petition why it cannot be accepted, and within 24 hours from receipt he or she shall return it to the candidate in whose behalf it was filed. In this case, supplementary petitions may be filed not later than 5:00 p.m. on the Wednesday after the filing deadline. However, supplementary petitions shall not be accepted if petitions with signatures of different persons totaling at least the number specified in subsection (b) of this section were not filed by the filing deadline set forth in subdivision (a)(1) of this section. (Added 1977, No. 269 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; amended 1979, No. 200 (Adj. Sess.), §§ 109, 120; 1981, No. 239 (Adj. Sess.), § 25; 1985, No. 137 (Adj. Sess.), § 3; 2013, No. 161 (Adj. Sess.), § 51; 2015, No. 30, § 27, eff. May 26, 2015; 2017, No. 50, § 55; 2019, No. 67, § 20.)