Editing County (United States) (section)

=== Organization ===
The structure and powers of a county government may be defined by the general law of the state or by a [[charter]] specific to that county. States may allow only general-law counties, only charter counties, or both. Generally, general-law local governments have less autonomy than chartered local governments.<ref>[https://ballotpedia.org/General_law_local_government#Total_charter_counties_by_state General law local government], from [[Ballotpedia]]</ref>

Counties are usually governed by an elected body, variously called the [[county commission]], [[board of supervisors]], [[commissioners' court]], [[county council]], [[county court]], or [[Administrative divisions of New York#County|county legislature]]. In cases in which a [[consolidated city-county]] or [[Independent city (United States)|independent city]] exists, a [[city council]] usually governs city/county or city affairs. In some counties, day-to-day operations are overseen by an elected [[county executive]] or by a chief administrative officer or [[county administrator]] who reports to the board, the mayor, or both.

In many states, the board in charge of a county holds powers that transcend all three traditional branches of government. It has the legislative power to enact laws for the county; it has the executive power to oversee the executive operations of county government; and it has quasi-judicial power with regard to certain limited matters (such as hearing appeals from the planning commission if one exists).

In many states, several important officials are elected separately from the board of commissioners or supervisors and cannot be fired by the board. These positions may include [[Clerk (municipal official)|county clerk]], county [[treasurer]], county surrogate, [[Sheriffs in the United States|sheriff]], and others.

[[District attorney]]s or state attorneys are usually state-level as opposed to county-level officials, but in many states, counties and state judicial districts have coterminous boundaries.

The site of a county's administration, and often the county [[courthouse]], is generally called the [[county seat]] ("parish seat" in Louisiana, "borough seat" in Alaska, or "[[shire town]]" in several New England counties). The county seat usually resides in a municipality. However, some counties may have multiple seats or no seat. In some counties with no incorporated municipalities, a large settlement may serve as the county seat.