Somerset County is governed and managed by a Board of Chosen Freeholders.
The board consists of five members; one or two are elected each year from the
County at large to serve three-year terms.
New Jersey is the only state where elected county officials are called "freeholders."
Most other states elect a county commission or county council. The term "freeholder"
is a carryover from colonial days, when only property owners - then known as
freeholders - were entitled to vote, and one freeholder represented each municipality.
Eventually, the number of freeholders in each county was reduced by statute and is
now determined by referendum, and cannot exceed nine members.
