(a) Upon a petition or petitions in writing, signed by twenty-five per centum of the qualified electors of the county, such per centum to be determined by the total vote cast in such county for the head of the State ticket in the next preceding general election, said petition or petitions being verified by an affidavit showing that the petitioners are qualified electors of said county, and such petition or petitions having been filed with the Governor at any time after four months after the admission of the State into the Union, the Governor shall within thirty days issue his proclamation calling an election to be held in such county not less than sixty nor more than seventy days from the date of his proclamation.

Such election shall be held under the provisions of the election laws of the State, and upon such public notice of such election as the Governor in his proclamation may direct; and the Governor shall cause to be placed upon the tickets to be voted at such election, only the names of such towns as may, more than twenty days prior to such election, file with the Governor verified petitions therefor, as above mentioned, signed by not less than three hundred qualified electors of said county.

(The word “town,” as herein used, shall be construed to mean town, city, or place.)

(b) Upon the holding of any such election the board of canvassers shall certify and return said vote to the Governor, who shall thereupon at once declare the result and cause the will of the electors to be carried into effect: Provided, That in all elections for the removal of any of the county seats named in this Constitution the following rules shall govern, until the county seat is once located by vote of the people, but not later than the first day of April, nineteen hundred and nine: Provided further, in case the necessary and proper petition for the holding of an election for the removal of a county seat shall be filed with the Governor, for over six months prior to the first day of April, nineteen hundred and nine (1909), in accordance with the foregoing provisions, and if such election or elections are delayed or postponed on account of any injunction or legal proceedings then the time limit provided in the subdivision of this section, shall be extended the length of time that such election or elections are delayed or postponed by such injunction or legal proceedings.

If a majority of all the votes cast in the county at such county seat election shall be in favor of any town, such town shall thereafter be the county seat: Provided, however, that where the county seat named in this Constitution is within six miles of the geographical center of the county (said geographical center to be determined by certificate from the Secretary of State, and said distance to be determined by measurement from said geographical center to the nearest corporate limits of such county seat as they existed on the twenty-first day of January, Nineteen Hundred and Seven), it shall require sixty per centum of the total vote cast at such election by the competing town to effect the removal of such county seat, unless such competing town be more than one mile nearer the geographical center of said county, in which event a majority vote shall suffice; but, if more than two towns are voted for and no town receive the requisite proportion of all the votes cast, then all names of towns voted for on said ballot, except the two receiving the greatest number of votes, shall be dropped; and the Governor shall, in like time and manner, cause to be called and held a second election, at which only the two towns which received the greatest number of votes cast at the first election shall be voted for; and the town receiving the requisite proportion of the votes cast at the second election shall be the county seat: Provided, that, after the first day of April, Nineteen Hundred and Nine, all county seats shall be subject to removal under the above named provisions; but, the town to which removal is sought must receive two-thirds of all votes cast in such county at the election held therefor, and such elections shall not occur at intervals of less than ten years: Provided further, that until after the first day of April, Nineteen Hundred and Nine, no public money shall be expended for court house or jail construction unless a vote of the people of such county shall have been taken on the relocation of the county seat.