Editing Politics of the United States (section)

===Town or township governments===
{{Main|Civil township}}

Town or township governments are organized local governments authorized in the state constitutions and statutes of 20 Northeastern and Midwestern states,<ref name="census2012" /> established as [[minor civil division]]s to provide general government for a geographic subdivision of a county where there is no municipality.
In New York, Wisconsin and New England, these county subdivisions are called ''towns''.

In many other states, the term ''town'' does not have any specific meaning; it is simply an informal term applied to populated places (both incorporated and unincorporated municipalities). Moreover, in some states, the term town is equivalent to how civil townships are used in other states.

Like counties, the specific responsibilities to townships vary based on each state. Many states grant townships some governmental powers, making them [[civil township]]s, either independently or as a part of the county government. In others, [[survey township]]s are non-governmental. [[New England town|Towns in the six New England states]] and townships in [[New Jersey]] and [[Pennsylvania]] are included in this category by the Census Bureau, despite the fact that they are legally [[municipal corporation]]s, since their structure has no necessary relation to concentration of population,<ref name="census2012" /> which is typical of municipalities elsewhere in the United States. In particular, towns in New England have considerably more power than most townships elsewhere and often function as legally equivalent to cities, typically exercising the full range of powers that are divided between counties, townships, and cities in other states.<ref>Osborne M. Reynolds, Jr., ''Local Government Law'', 3rd ed. (St. Paul: West, 2009), 30.</ref>

Township functions are generally overseen by a governing board, whose name also varies from state to state.