The provisions of the Constitution and General Laws of the State,
now or hereafter in effect, pertaining to elections, special, general
and primary, and also any special acts pertaining to elections in
the Town of West Greenwich, now or hereafter in effect, shall govern
all Town elections, special, general and primary, excepting those
provisions which are inconsistent with the provisions of this Charter.
[Amended 11-2-2010]
An elected official, having been in office for at least six
months, may be removed from office by a recall petition prepared and
approved by the electors of the Town in the manner hereinafter provided
for recall procedure:
A. Upon application by an elector of the Town, the Town Clerk shall
issue the recall petition with signature blanks. The petition issued
by the Clerk shall be dated, demand the removal of the designated
elected official, and state the cause upon which the removal is sought.
B. The petitioner may duplicate the petition form as needed to record
the required number of signatures. Each petition signer shall add
his or her signature, as it appears on the Board of Canvassers' records,
and provide place of residence giving the street and number or other
sufficient designation if there be no street and number. One of the
signers or the petition circulator shall take an oath before an officer
competent to administer oaths that the statement therein made is true,
as he or she believes, and that each signature to the paper appended
is the genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to be.
C. The recall petition shall be signed by at least 30% of the electors
registered to vote on the date that the Town Clerk issued the petition
blanks. The petitioners shall have 30 days from the date of issue
to collect the required signatures and file the completed petition
with the Town Clerk.
D. The petition shall be submitted immediately by the Town Clerk to
the Board of Canvassers for certification forthwith. If the petition
shall be found to be sufficient, the Board shall submit the same with
its certificate to the Town Council without delay. The Town Council
shall order an election to be held on a Tuesday fixed by them not
more than 75 days after the date of the Board of Canvassers' certificate
that a sufficient petition is filed; provided, however, that if any
other Town election is to occur within 120 days after the date of
the certificate, the Town Council shall postpone the holding of the
recall election to the date of such other election.
The Town Council shall appoint three electors to the Board of
Canvassers. Political party representation on the Board shall be qualified
in accordance with Section 17-8-1 of Rhode Island General Laws.
A. The terms of the Board members shall be six years with the terms
so arranged that the term of no more than one member shall expire
and no more than one appointment be made in any year.
B. All qualified electors of the Town, regardless of their political
affiliation or the lack thereof, are eligible to serve. The Town Council,
in making the appointments, shall strive to select a board whose membership
shall be representative of all citizens of the Town and of their diverse
points of view. The Board of Canvassers shall be vested with all the
powers and duties now or hereafter vested by law in the Board of Canvassers
of the Town. All members of said board now in office shall continue
in said position as members thereof until the expiration of the terms
for which they were chosen.