§ 1793. Annual and special town meetings. There shall be held in every town, annually, a town meeting for the election of town officers, which meeting shall be designated and known as the annual town meeting and special town meetings may be convened when the selectmen shall deem it necessary, and they shall convene a special town meeting on application of twenty inhabitants qualified to vote in town meetings, within ten days after receiving said application, and town meetings may be adjourned from time to time as the interest of the town may require.

§ 1794. As amended by Chap. 203, Pub. Acts, 1905. Annual meetings when held. The town meetings shall be held in the town of New Haven at the times specially provided by law for the elections of officers of the city and town of New Haven. The annual town meetings shall be held in the town of Hartford on the first Monday* of April, in the towns of Ansonia and Bridgeport on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November, in the town of Derby on the first Monday of December, and in every other town on the first Monday of October.

§ 1795. Warnings of town, city, borough, and other meetings. The warning *Tuesday. Special Laws. Vol. XIV-page 663.

of every town meeting, annual or special, and of every meeting of a city, borough, school society, school district, or other public community, or of an ecclesiastical society, or of proprietors of common fields, shall specify the objects for which such meeting is to be held. A printed or written warning of any town meeting, signed by the selectmen, or a majority of them, and set upon the signposts in the town, or printed in a newspaper published in said town, at least five days previous to holding the meeting, including the day that notice is given, but not including the day of holding said meeting, shall be sufficient notice thereof, except in those towns where such warning is directed by special charter provision, to be otherwise given; but any town may, at an annual meeting, designate any other place or places, in addition to the signposts, at which such warnings shall be set up, and the selectmen shall, on or before the day of such meeting, cause a copy of every such warning to be left with the town clerk, who shall record the same.

§ 1796. Hour of opening annual town and electors' meetings. Any town except Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, Waterbury, and Norwalk may, at any annual town meeting, order that all its annual town meetings or its electors' meetings shall be warned, opened, and held at six o'clock in the morning, or at any hour between six

and nine o'clock in the morning, and that the ballot boxes for all officers to be balloted for at any of said meetings shall be opened at that time, and may rescind any such order at any annual town meeting.

§ 1797. Conduct of meetings. Moderators. All town meetings for the election of town officers by ballot shall be held, conducted, and proceeded with, as far as may be, in the same manner as electors' meetings, unless when it is otherwise provided by law. All towns, when lawfully assembled for any other purpose than the election of town officers, and all societies and other communities when lawfully assembled, shall have power to choose a moderator to preside at said meetings, unless it be by law otherwise specially provided; and all questions arising in such meetings shall be decided by a major vote of the qualified voters present and voting, or, when there shall be an equal vote, by the moderator.

§ 1798. Who may vote for town officers at annual meeting. At any town meeting for the election of town officers in any town, every person may vote who has registered as an elector on the revised registry list of the town then last completed, and who, by virtue of such registration, was

entitled to vote in such town at the electors' meeting then last preceding, unless after such registration he removed from such town or was convicted of a crime by which he forfeited the privileges of an elector; and every person offering so to vote, and being challenged as to his identity or residence, shall, before he votes, prove his identity with the person on whose name he offers to vote, or his continued residence in such town since the completion of said list, as the case may be, by the testimony, under oath, of at least one other elector. And at any town meeting all those male citizens may vote who are of the age of twenty-one years, and who have resided in the state the one year, and in the town the six months, next preceding, and who have been duly admitted as electors in the town, or (unless restricted therefrom by a charter provision), who have a freehold estate not subject to a mortgage, rated, in their own names, in the common list or assessment last before completed, at three hundred dollars, or personal estate so rated in said list at one hundred and fifty dollars.

§ 1799. What women may vote for

school officers. Those women whose names appear upon the registry list of women voters shall be entitled to vote in any meeting held for choosing school officers or

upon any matter relating to education or

to schools.

§ 1800. As amended by Chap. 128, Pub. Acts, 1905. Assessors and their terms of office. The town of Hartford, at its annual meeting in the year 1904, and triennially thereafter, and every other town except the towns of Bridgeport, New Haven, Norwalk, Waterbury, East Hartford, Essex, Norwich, Middletown, Glastonbury, and Torrington, at its annual meeting, shall elect and cause to be sworn not less than two nor more than five assessors. The assessors elected by the town of Hartford shall hold office for the term of three years, and those elected by the towns of Meriden and New Britain for the term of one year, from the first Monday of June next succeeding their election, and until their successors shall be elected and qualified. In each of the towns of East Hartford, Norwich, Middletown, Glastonbury, and Torrington there shall be three assessors, and in each of said towns one assessor shall be elected at each annual town meeting, who shall hold office for the term of three years and until his successor shall be elected and qualified; the term of said office in East Hartford, Norwich, Glastonbury, and Torrington shall commence on the day of election; and the term of said office in Middletown shall commence on the first