§ 656. Submission of question; adoption; effect. 1. The board of elections shall cause such question to be submitted to the electors of the county in the manner provided in the election law. The provisions of section one hundred two of the county law, so far as applicable, shall apply also to the manner of submission of questions under the provisions of this chapter.

2. No alternative form of county government or variation thereof shall become operative in a county unless adopted by receiving a majority (a) of the total votes cast thereon in the county at large, (b) of the total votes cast thereon within the area outside of cities, and (c) of the total votes cast thereon within the area of any cities in the county considered as one unit. The disapproval of any question proposing a variation shall not otherwise affect or invalidate an alternative form of county government approved at the same election. The approval of any question proposing a variation of a form of government not already in effect at the time of submission shall be of no effect unless the alternative form of government is also approved at the same election.

3. If any such form of government provides for the transfer of any functions of local government to or from the cities, the towns or the villages of the county, the alternative form of county government proposed shall not take effect with respect to such transfer unless the transfer or the form of government containing it shall also receive a majority of all the votes cast thereon in all the cities so affected considered as one unit, in all the towns so affected considered as one unit, and in all the villages so affected considered as one unit.

4. Any alternative form of county government adopted by a county under this chapter shall take effect on the first day of January next succeeding its adoption, except as provided in subdivision five and except that the county president form of county government shall take effect on the first day of January of the second year after its adoption and the first county president shall be elected at the next general election following the adoption for a term beginning when the county president form takes effect. All provisions of the election law applicable to the nomination and election of other county officers shall apply also to the nomination and election of the county president.

5. Any modification of an existing form shall take effect on the first day of January next succeeding its adoption, except that a modification making an appointive officer elective shall take effect as to the election at the next general election after its adoption and the officer then elected shall take office on the first day of January thereafter. Any change to another form of government or abandonment of an existing form shall take effect on the first day of January of the second year after its adoption. Any new elective officers required by such change or abandonment shall be elected at the general election next preceding the taking effect of the new form of government.

6. Variations which are inconsistent shall not be submitted at the same election. Should two or more inconsistent variations be proposed, the variation first proposed shall have preference and shall be first submitted to the electors of the county for approval or disapproval. The other shall be submitted to the electors at subsequent general elections occurring in an odd-numbered year, in the order of their filing, but only if the inconsistent variation or variations previously submitted have been disapproved or if initiated by a new petition or resolution.