relative to the filling of vacancies in the office of a county commissioner.

The document title was updated from 'AS AMENDED BY THE SENATE' to 'VERSION ADOPTED BY BOTH BODIES,' reflecting that the bill has been finalized and agreed upon by both legislative chambers. This is a procedural status change, not a policy change.

The Senate version repeals and reenacts the entire section II of RSA 661:9 rather than just amending subsection (a), giving it authority to add new subsections (b) and (c) that did not exist in the House version.

A tiered voting system was added: if a county does not use district-based voting or does not restrict voting to district residents, all county convention members vote; if it does use district-based voting with resident restrictions, only convention members from that district vote; and if that leaves fewer than 3 eligible members, all members become eligible.

A new timing restriction was added: the vacancy-filling provisions apply only when the vacancy occurred no later than 30 days before the printing of ballots for the primary election.

The Senate version incorporates RSA 655:32 and RSA 655:37, which govern how political party committees nominate candidates for vacancies on primary and general election ballots respectively, making those existing nomination procedures apply to county commissioner vacancies filled under this act.

A provision was added stating that a person elected to fill the vacancy takes office at the next meeting of the county commissioners after any recount is completed.

The condition for adding a commissioner district to the next biennial election ballot changed. Previously, it triggered whenever the appointed term was less than the full unexpired term. Now it only triggers when the appointed term extends beyond the date of the next biennial election.

The length of service for a person elected in the biennial election changed from a fixed 2-year term to serving only the remainder of the unexpired term associated with that office. This could result in a much shorter elected term if the vacancy occurred close to the end of the original commissioner's term.

Minor wording changes: 'chosen' replaced with 'elected,' and 'the commissioner district filled pursuant to this paragraph' replaced with 'the office of a county commissioner.'