Chap. 347.—An ACT to amend and reenact Section 2773-n, as amended, of the
Code of Virginia, relating to elections on the question of adopting certain
forms of county government, and the election and salaries of members of the
county boards in counties adopting any such form of government. [H 404]

Approved March 31, 1948

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That section twenty-seven hundred and seventy-three-n of the
Code of Virginia, as amended, be amended and reenacted as follows:

Section 2773-n. Whenever two hundred or more qualified voters
in any such county shall petition the circuit court or the judge thereof
in vacation for said purpose, the court or judge shall by order entered
of record require the judges of election, on the day fixed in the order,
not less than thirty days from the date of such order, to open a poll and
take the sense of the qualified voters of the county on the questions sub-
mitted as hereinafter provided for. In the calling and holding of the
elections, the same procedure shall be followed as is provided in section
twenty-seven hundred and thirty-nine of the Code except that the ballot
shall have written or printed thereon the following:

Question One. Shall the county change its form of government?

FOR
AGAINST
(Strike out one)

Question Two. In the event of such change, which form of govern-
ment shall be adopted ?

MODIFIED COMMISSION PLAN
or
COUNTY MANAGER PLAN
(Strike out one)

Question Three. In the event of such change, shall the governing
board be elected at large or by districts?

AT LARGE
BY DISTRICTS
(Strike out one)

The commissioners of election shall ascertain whether a majority
of the qualified voters of the county voting on the question are in favor
of changing its form of government and, if so, whether the form shall
be the commission plan or the county manager plan, and whether the
governing board shall be elected by the county at large or by districts and
make report thereof to the circuit court of the county or to the judge
thereof in vacation. If it appears from such report that a majority of
the qualified voters of the county, voting on the question, are in favor
of the change, the circuit court, at its next term, shall enter of record
such fact and such additional facts as to the form of county government
adopted and as to whether the governing board shall be elected by the
county at large or by districts.

From and after the date on which the officers first elected under the
provisions of this chapter shall take office, the form of government of
such county shall be in accordance with this act.

When either of the forms of county government provided herein shall
be adopted for any county in the manner herein prescribed, the members
of the county board shall be elected at the next succeeding regular elec-
tion and shall take and hold office for a term of four years beginning on
the first day of January after their election. The salary of each member
of the board shall be six hundred dollars per annum until July first,
nineteen hundred and thirty-eight, after which date such salary shall be
twelve hundred dollars per annum; provided that in any county having
a population of more than one thousand per square mile such salary
shall be eighteen hundred dollars per annum.