the County of Essex..." In September 1975, a group called "Vote Yes", with support from the county's bipartisan conference of mayors and the non-partisan League of Women Voters submitted to the County Clerk petitions with nearly 62,000 signatures asking that a strong County Executive position be created, together with changes to the structure of the nine-member board of chosen freeholders in which four seats would be elected at-large and five from equal-sized districts; the signatures collected exceeded the minimum threshold of nearly 57,000 signatures necessary to put the measure on the ballot, representing 15% of the 378,000 voters registered in the county. Despite the Democratic Party's longstanding control of the existing freeholder board, it was "good government Democrats" who had gathered the greatest number of signatures. After the County Clerk verified the signatures submitted by the renamed Citizens for Charter Change in Essex County, it was determined that the group was 8,500 signatures short of the minimum, as only 48,200 of the names on petitions could be verified against voter registration rolls. A three-judge panel gave the charter-change supporters an extension to gather the necessary petitions in enough time to have ballots printed, which never came to fruition. A second initiative was begun by the bi-partisan Citizens for Charter Change in Essex County to get a referendum to modify Essex County government on the ballot, in the face of opposition from the establishment Democrats who had been in control of county government since 1969. In a June 1977 court ruling, it was determined that there were a sufficient number of signatures collected to get the initiative on the ballot. The chairman of the county Democratic Party vowed to "fight like hell" in opposition to the charter change, which he described as "a form of dictatorship", while the leader of a group opposed to the change, led by a freeholder not running for re-election, was against what he saw as the "establishment of an autonomous governmental czar who could reign unchecked over Essex County for four years." The second referendum was held in November 1977 and the proposal to create an executive branch was passed by the voters 72,226 to 64,238. The change also modified the structure of the legislative branch, board of chosen freeholders, eliminating the position of county supervisor and changing the structure of the nine-member, at-large board of chosen freeholders so that four would remain at-large, while five