Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. Chapter 61 of the acts of 1921 is hereby amended by striking out section 8, as most recently amended by section 1 of chapter 429 of the acts of 1941, and inserting in place thereof the following section:-

Section 8. No measure passed at any representative town meeting, except a vote to adjourn or a measure appropriating or borrowing money for emergency purposes which shall contain a preamble specifying the facts constituting the emergency and requiring for its passage a separate vote of two-thirds of the town meeting members present and voting thereon, shall become operative until the expiration of seven days, exclusive of Sundays and holidays, from the dissolution of the meeting. If, within said seven days a petition, signed by not less than ten percent of the registered voters of the town, the ten percent to be calculated based on the number of registered voters on the voting list of the last annual town election, containing their names and addresses as appearing on the current voting list is filed with the board of selectmen asking that the question or questions involved in such measure be submitted to the voters of the town at large, then the board of selectmen, after the expiration of seven days, shall forthwith call a special meeting for the sole purpose of presenting to the voters at large the question or questions so involved. The questions on said petition shall be stated in substantially the same language and form which they were stated when presented to said representative town meeting by the moderator. The polls shall be opened at seven o'clock in the forenoon and shall be closed no earlier than eight o'clock in the evening and all votes upon any questions submitted shall be taken by ballot, and a check list shall be used in the several precincts in the same manner as in the election of town officers. The questions submitted at the said town meeting shall be determined by a vote of a majority of the registered voters of the town voting thereon. The questions on the ballot shall be as drafted by the town counsel substantially in the same language and form in which they were presented to said representative town meeting by the moderator, and as they appear upon the records of said representative town meeting. If such petition is not filed within the said period of seven days, the vote of the representative town meeting shall become operative and effective upon expiration of said period.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage.