Chapter 54

Section 35. The body, board or official charged with the conduct of elections shall cause to be done all things necessary to properly carry on primaries and elections where voting machines are used. Before every primary and election they shall cause to be placed on public exhibit…

Section 35A. At polling places where voting machines are used ballots cast by challenged voters, and absent voting ballots cast at elections where such voting is permitted by law, shall be deposited in ballot boxes provided in accordance with law. For such polling places, the sta…

Section 35B. If the right of a person offering to vote by the use of such a machine is challenged, said person shall not be permitted to cast his vote by the use thereof, but shall be supplied by the presiding officer at the polling place with an official ballot prepared under se…

Section 36. In any election when voting machines are used in any polling place in any city or town, the number of election officers in such polling place may be less than six in the discretion of the board, body or official in which or in whom the authority to determine the numbe…

Section 37. The state secretary shall promulgate regulations governing the approval of voting equipment under section thirty-two. The state secretary shall promulgate regulations governing the contents, form, character and kind of ballots, ballot labels, ballot cards, formats, re…

Section 39. When an electronic voting system, voting machines or ballot boxes are purchased by the commonwealth or by a city or town, the persons of whom the purchase is made shall give to the state secretary, city or town clerk or election commissioners, as the case may be, a bo…

Section 4. All regular municipal elections and primaries held in any city after it has been redivided into wards or into any districts for electing city officers shall be held in such city as redivided. In the division of wards into voting precincts under this chapter, no voting …

Section 40. All ballots for use in elections of state officers shall be prepared and furnished by the state secretary, and all ballots for use in elections of city or town officers, by the city or town clerk. Ballots for use in an electronic voting system shall be in a form appro…

Section 41. Ballots for the use of voters in a voting precinct, polling place or town shall contain the names of all candidates duly nominated for election therein, and, except as provided in section forty-three, they shall contain the name of no other person. To the name of each…

Section 41A. The surnames of candidates for the offices of governor and lieutenant governor shall be placed upon the official ballot for use at state elections in groups, according to their political party or designation; except, in the case where two candidates have the same sur…

Section 42. Except as provided in section forty-one A, under the designation of the office, the names of the candidates for re-election to any office to be filled at a state election of which they are the elected incumbents shall be placed first on the ballot in alphabetical orde…

Section 42A. The state secretary and the city or town clerks shall cause each question appearing upon ballots prepared by them to be designated as follows: Questions submitted to the people under Article XLVIII of the Amendments to the Constitution of the Commonwealth shall appea…

Section 42B. When a question to be submitted to the voters is one of public policy, it shall be stated upon the ballot of every voter thereon: ''This question is not binding.''.

Section 42C. Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the contrary establishing a later time, the state secretary shall not print on the biennial state election ballot any question to the voters for which he receives final written notice after the sixtieth …

Section 43. The names of the candidates for presidential electors shall not be printed on the ballot, but in lieu thereof the surnames of the candidates of each party for president and vice president shall be printed thereon in one line under the designation ''Electors of preside…

Section 43A. At state elections and primaries at which any of the following offices are to be voted for, such offices shall appear on ballots and on ballot labels on voting machines in the following order consecutively:—Presidential elector, senator in congress, governor and lieu…

Section 44. The official ballots shall, except as otherwise provided in this chapter, be of ordinary white printing paper, of two or more pages, and shall, before distribution, be so folded as to measure not less than four and one half nor more than five inches in width and not l…

Section 45. One set of ballots, not less than one for each registered voter, shall be provided for each polling place at which an election for state, city or town officers is to be held. The state secretary or the city or town clerk, as the case may be, may provide a duplicate se…

Section 46. Ballots, in convenient numbers, shall be arranged in packages. A record of the number of ballots printed and delivered to each polling place shall be kept by the state secretary, or the city or town clerk, for one year.

Section 47. If a vacancy occurs or is declared in the list of nominations, by reason of death or ineligibility, the name of the candidate nominated to fill such vacancy shall, if the ballots have not been printed, be placed on them or, if the ballots have been printed, ballots co…

Section 48. The state secretary in state elections, city clerks in city elections, and town clerks in town elections at which official ballots are used, shall, for every such election, prepare and cause to be printed in large clear type cards containing full instructions to voter…

Section 48A. The state secretary shall provide a voters' bill of rights, which shall summarize appropriate election laws of the United States and the commonwealth as the state secretary determines, in a form suitable for posting for every polling place for every election. The sta…

Section 49. The state secretary, at least five days before state elections, shall transmit to the city or town clerk printed lists of the names, residences and designations of candidates to be voted for at each polling place, substantially in the form of the official ballot, and …

Section 5. When a ward has been divided into new voting precincts, or the voting precincts thereof have been changed, the aldermen shall forthwith cause a map or description of the division to be published, in which the new precincts shall be designated by numbers or letters and …

Section 50. At least four days before a city election, city clerks shall cause to be posted in every voting precinct the names, residences and designations of all candidates duly nominated to be voted for in their respective cities, substantially in the form of the official ballo…

Section 51. In towns using official ballots the town clerk, at least four days before an election therein, shall cause to be posted in one or more public places the names, residences and designations of all candidates duly nominated to be voted for in the town, substantially in t…

Section 52. Before every state election, the state secretary shall make available a list of all candidates to be voted for. He shall also print with said lists the form of any question to be submitted to the voters. Such lists shall be public records and one copy shall be sent to…

Section 53. The election commissioners in the city of Boston, at least twenty-four days, and the registrars of voters in every other city or town, at least ninety days, before the biennial state election, shall cause to be sent to the state secretary mailing lists of the voters w…

Section 54. The state secretary shall cause to be printed and sent, in the manner provided in section fifty-three, arguments for and against every measure to be submitted to the voters of the commonwealth. No argument shall contain more than one hundred and fifty words. The secre…

Section 58A. Whenever any provision of the General Laws, submitted for acceptance to the voters of a city or town, is to be placed on the ballot at any election, the city or town clerk shall place it on the ballot in the following form:— (Set forth here a fair, concise summary an…

Section 59. Ballots for state elections shall be enclosed in a package by the state secretary, sealed and marked with the number of ballots of each kind therein, and specimen ballots, cards of instruction, cards containing abstracts of the laws imposing penalties upon voters, and…

Section 6. In the year 2001 and every tenth year thereafter, no later than June fifteenth, the board of selectmen of every town of less than six thousand, two hundred inhabitants may, on their own motion, or shall, when so directed by the town meeting, and the board of selectmen …

Section 60. The city or town clerk, on the day of every state or city election, before the opening of the polls, shall transmit to the election officers of each polling place therein, all things mentioned in the preceding section which have been provided for such polling place; a…

Section 61. If the ballots provided for any polling place are not delivered, or if after delivery they are destroyed or stolen, the city or town clerk shall cause similar ballots to be prepared; and upon receipt of such new ballots, accompanied by a statement by him on oath that …

Section 62. The biennial state election for the choice of the officers to be elected pursuant to sections one hundred and fifty to one hundred and sixty-two, inclusive, shall be held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November in every even-numbered year.

Section 63. Elections of state officers and city officers shall be called by the aldermen, and the city clerk shall, under their direction, cause notice of such elections to be conspicuously posted in the office of the city clerk or on the principal official bulletin board of suc…

Section 64. Notices or warrants for state and city elections and for the election of town officers in towns where official ballots are used shall specify by name all the offices to be voted for, and state, in the form in which it will appear upon the ballot, any question submitte…

Section 65. At an election of state or city officers, and of town officers in towns where official ballots are used, the presiding election officer at each polling place shall, before the opening of the polls, post at least three cards of instruction, three cards containing abstr…

Section 66. The state ballot boxes shall be used for receiving the ballots in state and city elections, and in town elections where official ballots are used. The election officers at each polling place shall, at the opening of the polls and before any ballots are received, publi…

Section 67. One voting list shall be delivered to the ballot clerks and another may be delivered to the officer in charge of the ballot box; provided, however, that the city or town clerk may opt to use only 1 voting list at the check in. When a ballot is delivered to a voter, th…

Section 67A. If the selectmen so vote, more than one state ballot box may be used at any polling place in any town at state elections and at town elections if official ballots are used therein. If more than one ballot box is to be used at any polling place as aforesaid, the votin…

Section 68. No election officer shall, before the public declaration of the vote, make any statement of the number of ballots cast, the number of votes given for any person, the name of any person who has voted or whose name has not been checked, or of any other fact tending to s…

Section 69. No persons except the election officers, supervisors, custodians of voting machines when acting in the course of their duties, the city or town clerks, and voters admitted for the purpose of voting, shall, during the progress of an election and until the public declar…

Section 7. Upon its own initiative a board of selectmen of a town may, and upon direction of the town meeting of such town said board shall, make any change in the voting precincts of said town, in the same manner provided in section six and subject to the restrictions contained …

Section 70. No more than four voters, besides election officers and supervisors, custodians of voting machines when acting in the course of their duties, and the city or town clerk, in excess of the number of marking compartments provided, shall be allowed at one time within the …

Section 71. The presiding officer at each polling place shall enforce the performance by election officers of their duties. During an election and the counting of the ballots after the close of the polls, he shall have authority to maintain order and to enforce obedience to his l…