All incorporated municipalities are technically considered cities, even though the municipality may refer to itself as a town or village. Cities may be either general law or home rule. Once a city reaches 5,000 in population, it may submit a ballot petition to create a "city charter" and operate under home rule status (they will maintain that status even if the population falls under 5,000) and may choose its own form of government (weak or strong mayor-council, commission, council-manager). Otherwise the city operates under general law; those cities have only those powers authorized by the State. Annexation policies are highly dependent on whether the city is general law (annexation can only occur with the consent of the landowners) or home rule (no consent is required, but if the city fails to provide essential services, the landowners can petition for de-annexation), and city boundaries can cross county ones. The city council can be elected either at-large or from single-member districts (Houston uses a two-layer single-member district structure), or a mixture of the two. Ballots are on a nonpartisan basis (though, generally, the political affiliation of the candidates is commonly known).