All are elected one after the other, by all the vocals at the chapter. Each election ends on the seventh ballot, in which case a relative majority is sufficient, without prejudice to n. 450 § III.

The provincial chapter or the prior provincial with his council shall divide the voters into several colleges according to number and regions, ensuring that no college has fewer than ten voters or more than twenty. If in a particular region there are fewer than ten voters, they shall be added to another electoral college.

1. It is for the provincial council or the regional council to determine whether the voters must come together specially to hold the election or may vote by post.
2. If the election is carried out in a special assembly:
   1. the president and the place of the election shall be as in n. 477;
   2. in the actual process of the election, n. 464 shall be observed (see Appendix n. 18).
3. If, however, the voters cannot gather together conveniently, the following norms shall be used:
   1. within the time determined by the president (n. 477, § II), each voter shall write his vote on a ballot-paper in accordance with n. 452, 6;
   2. then, after placing the ballot-paper in an envelope, he shall write in his own hand his name and place of residence on the envelope and seal it carefully. After that, he shall enclose the first envelope in another envelope and send it to the president with a special marking so that it can be easily recognized.
4. When the time determined for receiving ballot-papers has elapsed, the president with the regional council shall conduct the count:
   1. when all the external envelopes have been opened in the presence of the council, the names of the electors written on the outside of the inner envelopes are examined to see whether each of them has the conditions required for active voice; if anyone does not, his vote shall be considered null and void;
   2. the number of voters and of envelopes is compared;
   3. the envelopes are opened and burned before the ballots are unfolded;
   4. the votes are then examined in accordance with n . 452, 9, 10, 11;
   5. if the majority required for election or postulation is obtained, a decree of election shall be drawn up by the president, and an authentic document of the election shall be prepared and sent to the prior provincial in accordance with n. 453, § I (see Appendix n. 24). All the voters shall be notified by letter of the result of the election;
   6. if, however, an absolute majority is not obtained in the first ballot, the president with the council shall fix the time for holding a new and final ballot; and shall inform by letter both the prior provincial and the voters of all that has taken place;
   7. a provincial chapter, however, may determine that a third or even a fourth ballot may be held if in the second or third an absolute majority is not obtained;
   8. if in the last ballot, whether it is the second (n. 6°) or the third (n. 7°), only those two who received the greater number of votes in the previous ballot may be presented, without prejudice to n. 450 § III. In this case, for the elected, if he coincides with the postulated one, a relative majority is sufficient, but for the postulated one, two-thirds are required.

1. Once the chapter has been convoked, the brothers who have the right to do so shall send to the Master or vicar of the Order the petitions and questions which they wish to propose to the chapter.
2. The following, apart from the members of the chapter, may submit petitions and questions:
   1. all major superiors, the socii of the Master of the Order, and the procurator general;
   2. any chapter and council and also the moderator team of a centre of studies;
   3. any religious provided that his proposal is countersigned by at least five brothers who have active voting rights, or is presented by a member of the chapter who shall judge whether the petition ought to be submitted or not;
   4. monasteries or federations of our nuns; provincial or national councils of fraternities of St Dominic.
3. Councils general or federations of congregations aggregated to the Order may submit their requests and suggestions concerning the Dominican family to a general chapter.
4.  
   1. Questions to be submitted to the general chapter by those who have the right or authority to do so shall be sent to the Master of the Order six four months before the chapter;
   2. they shall be set down briefly in Latin or a modern language accepted by the general council and submitted on as many separate pages as there are separate questions.
5.  
   1. The Master of the Order shall see to it that the questions mentioned in § IV, 1, assigned to different commissions according to differing material, are conveyed to each member of the chapter as soon as possible;
   2. The members of these commissions are: brothers having a voice in the chapter, including the associates of the prior provincials and diffinitors who enjoy the right of election (cf. n. 407 § III); assistants of the Master of the Order designated by the Master himself (cf. n. 410 § I); the prior provincials mentioned in n. 258, the vice-provincials and the vicars general of territories not belonging to a province or vice-province or delegates from them according to the norm of n. 410 § II;
   3. the voters shall at once let the Master of the Order know which three commissions they wish to belong to, in their order of preference, while acknowledging the Master’s right to arrange things freely according to the needs of the chapter;
   4. the Master of the Order shall then appoint the presidents of the commissions and inform the capitulars about the commission to which each has been assigned so that in the meantime they may study very carefully the questions which have been assigned to their own commission.

This is the sequence of chapters: the elective chapter, the chapter of diffinitors, the chapter of priors provincial, and so on. A new series of chapters in the aforesaid order begins with the elective chapter even if the election of a Master has to be held before the completion of the nine-year period.

1. A general chapter shall be held:
   1. every three years;
   2. whenever the office of Master of the Order falls vacant.
2. A chapter may, if it judges it opportune, call the next chapter within a shorter period of time.

He obtains his office by canonical election and remains in it for nine years. The time is computed from one elective chapter to the next elective chapter, disregarding whatever
few months—not, however, more than six months—which fall short of or exceed nine years.

1. The four-year term is calculated from one provincial chapter to another, disregarding the few days, weeks, or months by which, occasionally, the term falls short of or exceeds the four-year period; and it is terminated on the day immediately before the vigil of the commencement of the provincial chapter.
2. If it should happen that a prior provincial’s four-year term ends when the Order has no Master or that it ends within six months of a general chapter (see n. 354, § I), in either case it is understood that his term is extended until the following provincial chapter which will be held after the completion of the general chapter.

1. The electors are the brothers with active voice and assigned to the convent even if they live habitually outside the convent of their assignation. Those, however, who, in accordance with n. 497, § II, have been joined to a particular electoral college, are not to be counted among the number for determining the socii of a prior going to a provincial chapter (see n. 458, § II).
2. Those, however, who, under any title whatsoever, are already included among the voters at a provincial chapter cannot participate in the aforesaid election.

In the provinces there should be no houses which do not have at least four brothers.