Massachusetts Statutes

Section 111. The city or town clerk shall forthwith after each election examine the copies of the records of the election officers, and if any error appears therein, shall forthwith give notice thereof to the officers by whom the error was made, who shall forthwith make an additi…

Section 112. The clerk of each city and town and in Boston the Board of Election Commissioners, within fifteen days after the day of any election therein for a senator in congress, representative in congress, governor, lieutenant governor, councillor, state secretary, state treas…

Section 113. If any such copy transmitted to the state secretary is not sealed as required by law, he shall forthwith give notice thereof to the officers who transmitted the same; and thereupon another copy shall be made, attested, certified, sealed and transmitted to the secreta…

Section 114. The state secretary shall cause the date of the receipt of each copy of the records of votes to be endorsed on the envelope containing it; and if received unsealed, a memorandum thereof shall be made on the copy.

Section 115. The state secretary shall lay before the governor and council the copies of the votes cast. After such delivery, the governor, with at least five councillors, shall examine the copies. They shall tabulate said votes and determine who appear to be elected to the sever…

Section 116. The governor shall, in the presence of at least five councillors, certify to the results of the examination of the copies of the records of votes cast for governor and lieutenant governor, for councillors, for state secretary, state treasurer, state auditor and attor…

Section 116A. Any person whose name does not appear on the state election ballot, but who receives sufficient votes to elect him to an office appearing on said ballot, shall within three days after the certification of his election file a statement of financial interest under cha…

Section 117. After such certification, such copies shall be replaced in their respective envelopes and delivered with the certificate of examination to the state secretary, who shall on the first Wednesday in January lay the same, with schedules showing the number of ballots cast…

Section 118. The copies of the records of votes for presidential electors shall, in any event, within ten days after they have been transmitted to the state secretary, be examined by the governor and council, who shall thereafter declare, by proclamation, the names of the persons…

Section 119. Any person who appears, by the proclamation of the governor, to have received not less than one fifth of the entire number of votes cast for electors, may, if the election is contested, apply by petition to the supreme judicial court for Suffolk county, for a declara…

Section 11A. In any city subject to section eleven, the aldermen of which accept this section or have accepted corresponding provisions of earlier laws, no deputy warden, deputy clerk or deputy inspector provided for by said section shall be appointed.

Section 11B. The chairman of the city committee of each political party entitled to representation in the appointment of election officers may, not later than June first in each year, file with the registrars lists of enrolled members of such party who desire appointment as elect…

Section 12. The selectmen of every town shall annually, not earlier than July fifteenth nor later than August fifteenth, appoint as election officers for each voting place or precinct, except as provided in section twenty-four, one warden, one deputy warden, one clerk, one deputy…

Section 120. The petitioner and the contestant may appear and produce evidence at the hearing, and no person other than the petitioner or a contestant shall be made a party to the proceedings on such petition, or be heard thereon. If more than one petition is pending, or the elec…

Section 121. The county commissioners to whom the copies of the records of votes for county treasurer and register of deeds have been transmitted shall, on the first Wednesday of the month following the election, examine such copies, determine what persons appear to be elected, i…

Section 122. In each county, except Suffolk and Nantucket, the judge and register of the probate court and the clerk of the courts shall be a board of examiners; and if two of said offices are held by the same person in any county, the sheriff shall be a member of the board. The …

Section 123. If it shall appear to the governor and council, to the board of examiners, to the election commissioners or to the county commissioners, that any copy of a record of votes examined by them is incomplete or erroneous, they may order a new copy of the records to be mad…

Section 129. City and town clerks shall, within fifteen days after an election for representative in the general court, transmit to the state secretary an attested copy of the record of votes cast for all candidates for said office in each voting precinct and in each town not div…

Section 13. Such election officers shall be enrolled voters so appointed as equally to represent the 2 leading political parties, except that, without disturbing the equal representation of such parties, not more than 1/3 of the election officers not representing either of them m…

Section 130. The whole number of ballots cast at elections shall be stated in words at length in the records of votes and in all copies thereof, but if not so stated, the record or copy shall not be invalid if the true result can be ascertained therefrom.

Section 131. A violation by a public officer or election officer of laws relative to providing ballot boxes, blank forms and other apparatus or to the care and preservation thereof, or to the manner of canvassing and counting votes, shall not invalidate any record or copy of a re…

Section 132. The city or town clerk shall, within fifteen days after an election of state, city or town officers, certify to the state secretary the total number of voters checked on the voting list at such election in each voting precinct of the town. In the case of an election …

Section 133. The state secretary shall before February first of each year report to the general court the number of registered voters in each city and town at the date of the last preceding state, and city or town election, as the case may be, and the total number of persons who …

Section 134. If a person who has received votes for any office at an election shall, within thirty days thereafter, himself or by his agent serve upon a city or town clerk a written claim to such office or a declaration of an intention to contest the election of any other person,…

Section 135. A petition for a recount may be filed with the city or town clerk on or before five o'clock post meridian on the sixth day following a primary or preliminary election, or on or before five o'clock post meridian on the tenth day following an election, in a ward of a c…

Section 135A. For recounts of any election in an election district where voting machines are used all records of the election shall be transmitted to the registrars of voters for the recount, including the voting lists used at the election, the certificates issued to voters omitt…

Section 135B. The recount of the votes cast in any polling place where an electronic voting system is used shall consist of the inserting of the original ballots or ballot cards in a computer or tabulating mechanism which has been programmed and tested in accordance with section …

Section 136. No officer recounting ballots shall, except as required by law, make any statement or give any information relative to a ballot cast by a challenged voter.

Section 137. The city clerk shall not declare the result of an election for city officers or of a vote upon any question submitted to the voters until the time for filing a petition for a recount of ballots has expired, or, if such petition has been filed, until the ballots have …

Section 138. If, upon examination of the copies of the records of votes for presidential electors, it appears that a majority of the whole number of electors has not been chosen, the governor shall forthwith, by proclamation, call together the general court; and the senators and …

Section 14. For any primary or election, if the city or town clerk determines in writing that there is a deficiency in the number of required election officers within the 6 weeks preceding the primary or election, the appointing authority may appoint election officers without reg…

Section 140. (a) Upon failure to choose a senator or representative in congress or upon creation of a vacancy in that office, the governor shall immediately cause precepts to be issued to the aldermen in every city and the selectmen in every town in the district, directing them t…

Section 141. Upon a vacancy in the office of representative in the general court or upon failure to elect, the speaker of the house of representatives shall issue precepts to the aldermen of each city and the selectmen of each town comprising the district or any part thereof, app…

Section 142. Upon failure to choose a district attorney, clerk of the courts or in Suffolk county of the supreme judicial or superior court, register of probate or sheriff, the governor shall cause precepts to be issued to the proper officers, directing them to call an election o…

Section 143. Upon failure to choose a county treasurer or a register of deeds for a county or district, except Suffolk and Nantucket counties, the county commissioners shall forthwith issue precepts to the aldermen of each city and the selectmen of each town in such county or dis…

Section 143A. Upon a vacancy by removal or otherwise in the office of register of deeds in a county or district in which said office is under the general superintendency or jurisdiction of the secretary of the commonwealth the secretary shall forthwith issue precepts for an elect…

Section 144. Upon failure to choose a county commissioner, the board of examiners shall forthwith issue precepts to the aldermen of each city and to the selectmen of each town in such county, directing them to call an election to elect such officer on a day appointed therein. Upo…

Section 145. If a person elected to any of the offices mentioned in the 4 preceding sections dies before the first Wednesday of January following his election, the office shall be filled as in case of a vacancy.

Section 146. The county commissioners in each county shall forthwith notify the state secretary of any vacancy in the office of county treasurer or of register of deeds; and the board of examiners shall give like notice to the state secretary of any vacancy in the office of count…

Section 147. At elections held because of a failure to elect or to fill vacancies, the proceedings shall be the same, so far as applicable, as in elections to the same office at the biennial state election.

Section 148. The persons chosen as presidential electors shall meet at the state house on the date fixed by federal law next following their election at three o'clock in the afternoon and organize by the choice of a presiding officer and secretary. The state secretary shall call …

Section 149. Each elector shall receive from the commonwealth three dollars for each day of attendance, and one dollar for every five miles of travel from his residence to the place of meeting.

Section 15. No person shall, at a state, city or town election, be eligible or act as an election officer in a voting precinct where he is a candidate for election; and if a person appointed an election officer becomes such a candidate, and does not forthwith resign his office, t…

Section 150. At the biennial state election there shall be chosen by the voters of the commonwealth, as prescribed by the constitution, a governor, lieutenant governor, state secretary, state treasurer, state auditor and attorney general; by the voters in each councillor district…

Section 151. At the biennial state election in each year in which presidential electors are required to be elected, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of senators and representatives in congress to which the commonwealth is entitled, shall be chosen by the voters of …

Section 152. At the biennial state election in nineteen hundred and twenty-two, and in every sixth year thereafter, and in nineteen hundred and twenty-four, and in every sixth year thereafter, a senator in congress shall be chosen by the voters of the commonwealth.