Delran Township is governed within the Faulkner Act (formally known as the Optional Municipal Charter Law) under the Mayor-Council system of municipal government (Plan D), implemented based on the recommendations of a Charter Study Commission as of July 1, 1972. The township is one of 71 municipalities (of the 565) statewide that use this form of government. The governing body is comprised of the Mayor and the five-member Township Council, all of whom are elected to staggered four-year terms on a partisan basis as part of the November general election in even-numbered years. The Township Council is comprised of three members elected to represent wards and two elected at-large. Terms for the mayor and council are staggered, with the three ward seats up for vote together and the two at-large and mayoral seats expiring two years later. Beginning in 2010, elections for Mayor and Council were shifted from non-partisan to partisan.