Stonington — The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously Wednesday night to accept the final report of the Charter Revision Commission and send the list of 11 proposed changes to a referendum vote in November.

Many of the changes are designed to ensure Board of Finance elections are contested.

That is in line with the petition signed by more than 1,500 residents that forced the creation of the charter commission to “review the nomination, balloting, term and party representation requirements” for the finance board.

The petition effort began in the spring of 2014 after some residents felt the finance board had ignored the wishes of more than 500 people who packed a budget public hearing and asked that the school budget be sent to voters without cuts. The board refused.

Charter recommendations for the finance board include expanding the size of the board from six to seven members; allowing each political party to nominate as many candidates as open seats, the same as in school board elections; making the board subject to minority representation rules; reducing the length of terms from six to four years and limiting school board and finance board members to serving three successive terms, after which they would be eligible to serve again after a four-year break.

The town clerk would no longer cast the tie-breaking vote on the Board of Finance. The proposal also calls for a transition process in which candidates would run for three open seats in 2017 for two-year terms under the new rules. Alternating elections for three and four open seats would begin in 2019.

Currently, every two years, two finance board members — each with six-year terms — come up for election. The current procedure calls for the Democratic and Republican town committees to nominate one candidate for each of the two positions.

This means that if there is no third party, petitioning or independent candidates, the two party-endorsed candidates run unopposed and are elected.

Voters are asked to select one of two candidates on their ballots, but both are elected.

Other proposed charter changes not related to the finance board call for increasing the terms of the town clerk and tax collector from two to four years, and making the charter gender neutral.

j.wojtas@theday.com

Twitter: @joewojtas