§ 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

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(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.)