§160. Returns of election; recording returns; proclaiming result; effect of vote favoring annexation

A. The returns of such election shall be made to the municipal authorities of the city or town within forty-eight hours after the closing of the polls. The returns of election shall be likewise recorded and transcribed in the public record-book wherein the ordinances or official proceedings of the municipal authorities are usually recorded; and the municipal authorities shall within ten days thereafter make public proclamation of the result of such election by publication for ten days in one or more newspapers published in the city or town, or if there be none, by posting as required in sheriff's and constable's sales; and if a majority in number and value of the qualified electors residing in the territorial corporate limits of such city or town as theretofore established and constituted, voting at such election, have voted in favor of the proposed annexation of such lots or land, the lots or land proposed to be annexed, shall, from the expiration of the proclamation of the result of the election, be annexed to, included in and constitute part of the corporate limits of the city or town and be subject to the jurisdiction, control, and authority of the municipal authorities of the city or town as fully, and to all intents and purposes as if, the same had been originally included in the corporate limits thereof.

B. The municipal governing authority shall furnish, by electronic medium, the registrar of voters and the secretary of state a copy of all municipal ordinances annexing territory within fifteen days after adoption of such ordinances, as well as a map and written description of all newly annexed territory. If the municipal governing authority does not have the ability to submit the information required by this Subsection by electronic medium, the governing authority shall submit the information by certified mail or commercial courier.

C. As used in this Section, the following terms shall have the meanings ascribed to them by this Subsection:

(1) "Commercial courier" means any foreign or domestic business entity having as its primary purpose the delivery of letters and parcels of any type which acquires a signed receipt from the addressee, or the addressee's agent, of the letter or parcel upon completion of delivery and has no direct or indirect interest in the outcome of the matter to which the letter or parcel concerns.

(2) "Electronic medium" means by electronic mail or facsimile.

Acts 1986, No. 669, §2; Acts 2016, No. 294, §1, eff. May 31, 2016.