Does anyone have information on early voting in Massachusetts. I’ve seen conflicting information. On one hand, there apparently was a law passed to allow for early voting, starting in 2016.
But my town’s (Randolph) website has nothing on it to indicate that voters are allowed to vote early. Only absentee voting is mentioned, which has conditions attached. The town website connects to the Secretary of State’s website, which also has no information.
Does early voting only apply to the November election? If the law was mandated to be implemented in 2016, shouldn’t it already be in place? After all, we have already had one election in 2016, and there is another next month.
I’m curious whether anyone has seen information in their town about this.
Early Voting in Massachusetts?
Please share widely!
Jasiu says
Yes. I believe it only covers the November election in even numbered years. Will re-find the reference I found a couple months ago when I had the same question…
Jasiu says
Link.
I agree that finding the fine print on the law isn’t easy, at least given what my search engine returned.
Peter Porcupine says
And bad enough it is a Thursday instead of a Tuesday.
The excuse is that the Tuesday is the day after a holiday, and the following week is too short a time until the general. But optional early voting would have addressed this, and anybody away would be able to vote in the prior weeks. (We will for now set aside the idiocy of the primaries being so late at all)
IS there a reason why state elections are not benefitted by a state law?
OR is the intent of the law to only allow early voting if there is a FEDERAL election?
Why?
stomv says
But my understanding is that town clerks don’t like early voting. Maybe this is like walking before running — get a few “early voting” experiences under our belt before expanding to more elections?
Christopher says
…both elections are on the 8th, September and November.
jlinehan says
Here is the information about Boston early voting, with locations and hours:
https://www.boston.gov/news/mayor-walsh-announces-early-voting-locations-november-8-presidential-election
Early voting is allowed in regularly scheduled biennial state elections, so it starts with the November election this year. Obviously, voting will vary with each city and town. We’re lucky in Boston because we have the systems to absorb the extra staff hours and other expenses, but it’s going to be tough for a lot of other places. In Boston, there will be nine locations. One of the trickiest things is that you don’t have to vote in your own precinct. In other words, though I live in Dorchester, I can vote early in East Boston. This means that every polling location in Boston must have every ballot in Boston. They have to be able to accommodate my votes for Sen. Forry and Rep. Cullinane (endorsements!) even if I vote in East Boston, far away from their districts. It’s a big challenge, but the Boston Election Department has been working hard to make it a smooth early voting period.
Here’s some more general info from the League of Women Voters.
Joyce
jlinehan says
Here it is-
https://lwvma.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/MOVE-2016-Handout-for-Council.pdf