1. Whenever a number of registered voters equal to 25 percent or more of the number of persons registered to vote at the last preceding general election in any county whose population is less than 100,000 petitions the board of county commissioners of their county to divide the county into three commissioner districts, or if the board has five members, into five commissioner districts, the question must be submitted to the qualified electors of the county for approval or disapproval at the next succeeding general election. The board of county commissioners may, on its own motion, submit the question to the voters. The question must be submitted in such a manner that the voters are also given a choice as to whether to elect the commissioners from districts or at large, if the division is approved. If a majority of the voters voting on the question approve the division, the board of county commissioners shall divide the county into three commissioner districts, or five commissioner districts, as the case may be, on or before the first Monday in July preceding each general election. The division must be made to conform to the established boundaries of election precincts or wards, and each election precinct or ward must be wholly within one of the commissioner districts provided for in this section. Each commissioner district must embrace, as near as may be, one-third or one-fifth, as the case may be, of the population of the county, and must consist of adjoining precincts.

2. The board of county commissioners shall provide by resolution for the dates of election of commissioners from newly created districts, in such manner as to secure the earliest representation of each district as the terms of incumbent commissioners expire.

3. The board of county commissioners shall cause to be published in some newspaper in the county, if there is one, and if not, then by posting at the door of the courthouse and one or more conspicuous places in each of the commissioner districts, a notice specifying the election precincts or wards embraced in each of the commissioner districts so established. The notice must be posted or published for a period of not less than 20 days before each general election.

4. Except as otherwise provided in subsection 1, county commissioners must be elected at large by the qualified electors of the county.

5. The commissioner districts, regardless of when created, may be abolished in the same manner as provided for their creation in subsection 1.

6. Upon the abolition of commissioner districts the incumbent county commissioners are entitled to serve the remainder of the terms for which they were elected or appointed, and thereafter county commissioners must be elected at large from within the county.

[1:36:1893; C § 1759; RL § 1531; NCL § 1964] + [2:36:1893; C § 1760; RL § 1532; NCL § 1965] + [3:36:1893; C § 1761; RL § 1533; NCL § 1966] + [4:36:1893; A 1895, 39; C § 1762; RL § 1534; NCL § 1967] — (NRS A 1959, 867; 1960, 92; 1961, 405; 1969, 27, 1532; 1979, 510; 1981, 1008; 1985, 1116; 1987, 1377; 1991, 1137)