Section 2-12-101 - Commissioners - Appointment - Removal - Legal representation(a) The state election commission shall appoint, on the first Monday in April of each odd-numbered year, five (5) election commissioners for each county, for terms of two (2) years and until their successors are appointed and qualified. The five (5) commissioners shall be the county election commission.(b) The state election commission shall remove a commissioner who becomes unqualified and may remove or otherwise discipline a commissioner for cause.(c) County election commissions shall be represented in legal proceedings as follows: (1) If the legal proceeding names the county election commissioners as defendants and the lawsuit involves a municipal election, the municipality concerned shall furnish counsel to represent the commissioners;(2) If the election involved in the legal proceedings is that of a county election, the county shall furnish counsel for the commissioners and if the election involved in the legal proceedings attacks a state law or presents a question concerning a state or federal election, the attorney general and reporter shall represent the commissioners either by the attorney general and reporter's own staff or by such counsel as the attorney general and reporter may designate;(3) The counsel furnished, whether by municipality or county, shall be that chosen by the election commission unless the commission carries an insurance policy providing coverage of claims asserted in a lawsuit, in which case the provisions of the insurance policy control with respect to representation of the commission; and(4) If, in order to properly discharge its duties, the county election commission has to bring legal action against a county or municipality, the compensation for the commission's legal representation shall be borne by the county or municipality, as the case may be.(d) The county election commission created by this section is the immediate successor to the commissioners of elections for each county. Wherever in the Tennessee Code the commissioners of elections for counties are referred to, the term "county election commission" shall be substituted.Amended by 2019 Tenn. Acts, ch. 44,s 1, eff. 3/28/2019.Acts 1972, ch. 740, §§ 1, 7; 1974, ch. 535, § 1; 1979, ch. 316, § 3; T.C.A., § 2-1201; Acts 1980, ch. 609, § 6; 1993, ch. 208, § 2.