Chapter 53

Section 1. At any primary, caucus or convention held under this chapter, each party having the right to participate in or hold the same may nominate as many candidates for each office for which it has the right to make nominations therein as there are persons to be elected to tha…

Section 10. All certificates of nomination and nomination papers of candidates for the office of state representative, state senator, executive council, or county office shall be filed with the state secretary on or before the last Tuesday in May of the year in which a state elec…

Section 100. If, in a town, nomination papers placing persons in nomination for all the offices to be filled at a caucus are not filed, or upon a vacancy by death or otherwise, except a withdrawal, the chairman or secretary of the town committee shall forthwith call a meeting of …

Section 101. A person nominated by a nomination paper may, within forty-eight week day hours succeeding five o'clock in the afternoon of the day fixed for opening nomination papers, withdraw his name from nomination by a request signed by him in person and filed with the secretar…

Section 102. Not less than seven week days before the day upon which the caucuses are to be held and before five o'clock in the afternoon of the last day, the secretary of each city or town committee shall deliver to the city or town clerk the nomination papers filed with him.

Section 103. If an error or informality is found in any nomination paper, it shall be forthwith returned to the secretary of the committee by whom it was filed, for correction; and if not corrected and again filed before five o'clock in the afternoon of the day following its retu…

Section 104. Objections to nomination papers, and all other questions relating thereto, shall be considered in cities by the board of registrars, the city clerk and the city solicitor; and in towns by the board of registrars.

Section 105. Ballots for each political and municipal party, ballot boxes, voting lists, specimen ballots, blank forms and apparatus, seals and record books, shall be provided and treated in accordance with sections thirty-two to thirty-six, inclusive, so far as applicable, excep…

Section 106. On the back and outside of each ballot when folded shall be printed the words ''Official ballot of the (here shall be inserted the party name)'' followed by the number of the precinct and ward or the name of the town for which the ballot is prepared, the date of the …

Section 107. Caucuses, except as otherwise provided, shall be held in general accordance with the laws governing the conduct of elections and the manner of voting thereat.

Section 108. The order of business shall be as follows: First, Any necessary preliminary business. Second, Balloting until half past eight o'clock in the evening, when the polls shall be closed unless the caucus shall vote to keep them open until a later hour; but every voter wai…

Section 109. If the right of a person offering to vote is challenged for any legal cause, and he takes the oath required by section seventy-six, the presiding officer shall require him, or some one in his behalf, to write his name and residence on the outside of the ballot offere…

Section 11. When certificates of nomination and nomination papers have been filed, and are in apparent conformity with the law, they shall be valid unless written objections are made. Such objections shall be filed, as to state offices, with the state secretary, and, as to city o…

Section 110. Immediately after the polls have been declared closed, but not before, the ballots shall be counted in full view of the voters. When they have been counted and the result ascertained, the presiding officer shall make public announcement thereof in open meeting, and t…

Section 111. The city or town clerk, upon written application signed by at least ten voters of a ward or town, for a copy of a list as checked, shall open the envelope containing the voting list used at any caucus in such ward or town and shall furnish to them a certified copy th…

Section 112. If before five o'clock in the afternoon of the second day next succeeding the day of a caucus, ten or more voters of any town or ward shall sign, adding thereto their respective residences on January first of that year, and file with the city or town clerk a sworn st…

Section 113. At the caucus held for the choice of candidates for a city or town election there shall be chosen annually a warden, a clerk, and at least five inspectors, and, in wards having more than five precincts, such additional inspectors as the city committee of the politica…

Section 114. A majority of the caucus officers present at a caucus may fill temporary vacancies and elect additional officers to serve in that caucus only. Such temporary officers shall be duly sworn. Permanent vacancies shall be filled by a majority vote of all the caucus office…

Section 115. A city or town committee of a political party which has adopted the provisions of law for the use of official ballots shall, at least ten days before holding any caucus thereunder, appoint caucus officers in each ward, town, or voting precinct in cities and towns whe…

Section 116. In a newly incorporated city, or upon a redivision into wards of a city to which said provisions apply, the caucus officers to serve in the first caucuses held in the next succeeding year shall be appointed by the city committee; and at such caucuses the regular cauc…

Section 117. A caucus of the voters, or of a specified portion thereof in a ward of a city, or in a town, may be called and held for the nomination of candidates to be voted for at any city election, or at any election of town officers for which official ballots are used, or for …

Section 118. The notice for a caucus under the preceding section shall be written or printed, shall state the place where, and the day and hour when, said caucus is to be held, shall be issued at least seven days prior thereto, and shall be conspicuously posted in at least five p…

Section 119. Upon the written request of ten or more voters present at a caucus and entitled to vote therein, presented by a motion or otherwise to the presiding officer for the time being, at any time before the choice of the officer to which it relates, any candidate, delegate …

Section 120. The secretary of a caucus held under the three preceding sections shall, at the written request of ten voters entitled to vote in the caucus, preserve all ballots cast and voting lists used therein for three months, and shall produce the same if required by any court…

Section 121. A town in which official ballots are used, may at any annual meeting vote to hold a town caucus for the nomination of candidates for town officers required to be voted for by official ballot at its annual meeting and after such vote has been in effect therein for a p…

Section 122. The following provisions shall apply to regional school district-wide elections: (a) Any person who is a resident of a member community and is a registered voter in the community in which he resides shall be entitled to have his name printed on the ballot to be used …

Section 13. A person nominated as a candidate for any state, city or town office may withdraw his name from nomination by a request signed and duly acknowledged by him before a notary public, and filed with the officer with whom the nomination was filed, within the time prescribe…

Section 14. If a candidate nominated for a state, city or town office dies before the day of election, or withdraws his name from nomination, or is found ineligible, the vacancy, except for city offices where city charters provide otherwise, may be filled by the same political pa…

Section 15. When a nomination is made to fill a vacancy caused by the death, withdrawal or ineligibility of a candidate, the certificate of nomination shall, in addition to the other facts required, state the name of the original nominee, the fact of his death, withdrawal or inel…

Section 16. Certificates of nomination, nomination papers, objections thereto and withdrawals, when filed, shall, under proper regulations, be open to public inspection, and the state secretary and the city and town clerks shall preserve the same in their offices for one year.

Section 17. The state secretary shall, upon application, provide blank forms for the nomination of candidates for all state offices; and he shall send blank forms for certificates of nomination for the office of representative in the general court to the clerk of each city and to…

Section 17A. Upon the filing of a petition with the chairman of the state committee of a political party, signed by fifty enrolled members of such party within a senatorial district, such chairman shall call a convention of all the ward and town committees in said senatorial dist…

Section 18. It is hereby declared to be the policy of the commonwealth that the general court, when called upon to act upon a proposed amendment to the federal constitution, should defer action until the opinion of the voters of the commonwealth has been taken, as herein provided…

Section 18A. As used in this section ''governing body'' shall mean, in a city, the city council acting with the approval of the mayor subject to the provisions of the charter of said city, in a town having a town council, the town council, and in every other town the board of sel…

Section 18B. (a) As used in this section ''governing body'' shall mean, in a city, the city council or board of aldermen acting with the approval of the mayor subject to the charter of the city, in a town having a town council, the town council, in every other town, the board of …

Section 19. On an application signed by twelve hundred voters in any senatorial district, or by two hundred voters in any representative district, asking for the submission to the voters of that senatorial or representative district of any question of instructions to the senator …

Section 2. Except in the case of municipal nominations where a city charter or a law applying to a particular town otherwise provides and in the case of nominations to regional district school committees elected district-wide, candidates of political parties for all elective offi…

Section 20. The provisions of law relative to the signing of nomination papers of candidates for state office, and to the identification and certification of names thereon and submission to the registrars therefor, shall apply, so far as apt, to applications submitted under secti…

Section 21. Applications shall be filed with the state secretary not later than the first Wednesday of August before the election at which the questions are to be submitted. Not more than three questions under section nineteen shall be placed upon the ballot at one election, and …

Section 22. No vote under the three preceding sections shall be regarded as an instruction under article nineteen of the bill of rights of the constitution of the commonwealth, unless the question submitted receives a majority of all the votes cast at that election.

Section 22A. The provisions of law relative to the signing of nomination papers of candidates for state office, and to the identification and certification of names thereon and submission to the registrars therefor, shall apply, so far as apt, to the signing of initiative and ref…

Section 23. Sections twenty-four to forty, inclusive, shall apply to all primaries, except as therein otherwise provided.

Section 24. Primaries shall be subject to all laws relating to elections and corrupt practices therein, so far as applicable and except as otherwise provided in this chapter and in chapters fifty-four, fifty-five and fifty-six.

Section 25. Withdrawals of nominations of persons to be voted for at primaries shall be subject to section thirteen, except that the date from which the time for filing withdrawals shall be computed shall be the last day for filing nomination papers for such primaries, and that t…

Section 28. State primaries shall be held on the seventh Tuesday preceding biennial state elections and on the fourth Tuesday preceding special state elections, except that primaries before special elections for senator or representative in congress shall be held on the sixth Tue…

Section 29. The city or town clerk may designate two inspectors and two deputy inspectors, representing the two leading political parties, to serve at primaries, and from the whole body of election officers he may designate officers equally representing the two leading political …

Section 3. A person whose name is not printed on a state primary ballot as a candidate for an office, but who receives sufficient votes to nominate him therefor, shall, not later than five o'clock post meridian of the thirteenth day after a regular state primary and the sixth day…

Section 30. In wards or towns where voting is by precincts at elections but by wards or towns at primaries, the city or town clerk shall designate which of the election officers shall serve as primary officers.

Section 31. A person shall not be ineligible to act as a primary officer because he is a candidate for delegate to a convention, or,, a candidate for or member of a ward or town committee.

Section 32. Ballots shall be prepared and provided, and the number thereof determined, in state and presidential primaries by the state secretary, in city and town primaries by the city or town clerk. Notwithstanding the provisions of section forty-five of chapter fifty-four or a…