meeting. The presiding officer shall determine all questions of order or procedure (and the presiding officer’s rulings shall be final) and may, in his or her discretion, adjourn a meeting of shareholders regardless of whether a quorum is present.
(b)The Secretary of the Corporation, with the assistance of such agents as may be designated by the Secretary, shall make all determinations of the validity of proxies presented and ballots cast.
| (c) | In the event that any person or group other than the Board of Directors hold proxies for more than ten |
(10)other shareholders, any vote taken with respect to any contested matter, determined to be such by the presiding officer, shall be taken in the following manner:
(i)Shareholders wishing to vote in person shall obtain ballots from the Secretary and cast their votes. After a period determined to be reasonable by the presiding officer, no further voting in person shall be permitted.
(ii)Thereafter, persons holding proxies shall obtain a ballot from the Secretary which shall be in a form to permit the votes cast with respect to each appointment of proxy to be identified as such and shall fill out such ballot, and return it together with the original appointments of proxies to the Secretary. After a period determined to be reasonable by the presiding officer, the polls shall be closed and no further voting on the question shall be allowed.
(iii)If the number of proxies held by persons or groups other than the Board of Directors is high, the presiding officer may, after consultation with the Secretary, adjourn the meeting for up to seventy-two
(72) hours, to permit the counting of the votes; provided, however, that the presiding officer may, in his discretion, permit other business, including the casting of other votes, to be transacted prior to any such adjournment.
ARTICLE II
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
1.Composition of Board of Directors. The Corporation shall have a Board of Directors consisting of active directors, whose qualifications, election, number, etc. are described and discussed in this Article II and throughout these Bylaws. Whenever the terms “director” or “Board of Directors” or “Board” are used herein or in other corporate documents, the terms shall include active directors only.
| 2. | Qualification and Election of Active Directors. |
(a)Except for any directors as to whom such age requirement has been waived by the Board of Directors prior to the Effective Time or as set forth in this Section 2(a) of Article II, directors must be shareholders, not under twenty-five (25) years of age and not over seventy-two (72) years of age at the time of the shareholders’ meeting at which they are elected by the shareholders. In the event that a director attains age seventy-two (72) during his or her term of office, he or she shall serve until the end of his or her then- current term of office after his or her seventy-second (72nd) birthday. Notwithstanding the foregoing, (i) if the Board of Directors determines that it is in the best interests of the Corporation and its shareholders, the Board of Directors, upon the recommendation of the Governance Committee, may waive the foregoing requirements for one or more directors and (ii) such age requirement shall be deemed to be waived, as applicable, with respect to the initial appointment of the directors appointed to the Board of Directors pursuant to Section 6.12(a) of that certain Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of January 25, 2020, by and between CenterState Bank Corporation and South State Corporation, as it may have been amended, restated, supplemented or otherwise modified from time to time.
The terms of all directors shall expire at the next annual meeting of shareholders following their election. Each director, except in the case of his or her death, resignation, removal or disqualification, shall hold office until the expiration of the term for which he or she is elected and thereafter until his or her successor has been elected and qualified. Any vacancy occurring in the Board of Directors, including vacancies occurring in the Board by reason of removal with or without cause or increase in membership, shall be