//Run for office · Massachusetts

How to run for local office in Massachusetts

Massachusetts runs local elections town by town: you file with the city or town clerk, and the voter list comes from that clerk, because the state's central registry is off limits to local campaigns.

Facts checked against official sources · September 9, 2026

There is no county election office in Massachusetts. Every city and town clerk (with the board of registrars) registers voters, prints ballots, and runs the polls for its own municipal election, and the Secretary of the Commonwealth sets the rules and maintains the statewide central registry of voters (VRIS). For a select board, school committee, or city council candidate, almost everything happens at the clerk's counter: nomination papers, campaign finance forms, and the voter list.

Two things surprise first-time candidates. First, the statewide voter file is not a public record and is licensed only to statewide campaigns and political parties, so you get your list from the clerk under the Public Records Law instead. Second, since the 2022 VOTES Act every registered voter can vote by mail in a municipal election unless the city or town formally opted out, so your race may be decided before election day.

Election authority: Secretary of the Commonwealth, Elections Division
Voter file: Public record — anyone can obtain it · Set by each city or town under the Public Records Law; the election office may charge only the cost of producing the record (Secretary of the Commonwealth, Access to Voter Information page, checked 2026-09-09)
Campaign finance: OCPF electronic depository filing (mayoral and large-city council candidates only) (Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF))
How voters vote: In person, with no-excuse mail voting
Registration deadline: 5 p.m. on the 10th day before the election (M.G.L. c. 51 s. 26); no election-day registration
Local offices: Municipal offices are nonpartisan: nomination is by paper and the ballot carries no party designation. Party enrollment still matters for targeting because it is on the voter list.

Who runs elections in Massachusetts

Secretary of the Commonwealth, Elections Division The Elections Division writes the rules, maintains the central registry of voters, publishes registration statistics, and licenses the statewide voter file to statewide campaigns and parties. A local candidate rarely deals with the Division directly; the city or town clerk handles nomination papers, ballots, and (for most municipal candidates) campaign finance reports.

City and town clerks and boards of registrars register voters, issue nomination papers, mail ballots, run early voting when it is offered, and count the vote for municipal elections. Massachusetts has no county election offices; the 14 counties play no role in running elections.

Getting the Massachusetts voter file

The voter file is the list of every registered voter, with the fields a campaign needs to target: address, party where the state records it, and vote history. In Massachusetts it comes from Your city or town clerk or board of registrars (municipal voter list); Secretary of the Commonwealth for the statewide central registry.

Access: Public record — anyone can obtain it
Cost: Set by each city or town under the Public Records Law; the election office may charge only the cost of producing the record (Secretary of the Commonwealth, Access to Voter Information page, checked 2026-09-09)
Format: Confirm with Your city or town clerk or board of registrars (municipal voter list); Secretary of the Commonwealth for the statewide central registry
Vote history: Not confirmed
Phone numbers: Not confirmed
Updated: Confirm with Your city or town clerk or board of registrars (municipal voter list); Secretary of the Commonwealth for the statewide central registry

Who can get it: Anyone can request the municipal voter list from the local election office under the Massachusetts Public Records Law. The statewide central registry is not a public record: under M.G.L. c. 51 s. 47C it goes to state party committees, statewide candidate committees, state ballot question committees, and others the Secretary designates by regulation, under a licensing agreement that bars sharing or resale.

Permitted use: The municipal list is a public record with no statutory use restriction beyond the licensing terms your clerk applies. Statewide file licensees must sign an agreement that prohibits sharing or selling the data (Secretary of the Commonwealth, Access to Voter Information page, checked 2026-09-09).

County option: There is no county file. The municipal list from the clerk is the only practical route for a local candidate; ask for the current voter list (name, address, party enrollment, precinct) and whether the office can add voting history from VRIS.

The central registry holds each voter's name, address, date of registration, date of birth, occupation, veteran status, and nationality (M.G.L. c. 51 s. 47C); names and addresses in it are expressly not a public record.
Registration statistics by county, municipality, precinct, and party are published free by the Secretary after each statewide registration deadline, which is useful for sizing a district before you buy the list.

Whatever file you get, Culper imports it as a CSV and maps the columns for you. See how to read a voter file for what the fields mean.

Filing to run for local office in Massachusetts

You get on a Massachusetts municipal ballot with nomination papers, not a party primary. Pull the papers from the city or town clerk, collect voter signatures in the district, and return them to the clerk (registrars certify the signatures) by 5 p.m. on the 35th day before the election under M.G.L. c. 53 s. 10. City charters often add a preliminary election and an earlier paper deadline, so read the charter first.

File with: City or town clerk (with certification by the board of registrars)
Filing fee: Confirm with the filing officer
Petition: Town offices and district-wide regional school committee seats: signatures equal to 1% of the vote for governor in the district at the last state election, but never fewer than 20 and never more than 50 (M.G.L. c. 53 s. 6). City offices: 1% of the gubernatorial vote in the district unless the city charter sets its own number.
Partisan?: Municipal offices are nonpartisan: nomination is by paper and the ballot carries no party designation. Party enrollment still matters for targeting because it is on the voter list.

Filing window: Nomination papers for a town office are due to the town clerk by 5 p.m. on the 35th day before the town election; papers for a city office are due by 5 p.m. on the 35th day before the city election (M.G.L. c. 53 s. 10). Cities with a September preliminary election set an earlier deadline by charter. There is no fixed statewide date because each town election falls somewhere between February and June (M.G.L. c. 39 s. 9).

Key Massachusetts dates
What	When	Note
Nomination papers due, 2027 annual town election	Varies	35th day before your town's election date, 5 p.m. (M.G.L. c. 53 s. 10). Annual town meetings and elections fall in February through June (M.G.L. c. 39 s. 9); the town clerk posts the exact date.
Nomination papers due, November 2, 2027 city elections (statutory default)	September 28, 2027	35th day before the Tuesday-after-the-first-Monday election, 5 p.m. (M.G.L. c. 53 s. 10). Cities with a September preliminary set an earlier charter deadline; check with the city clerk.
Voter registration closes, November 2, 2027 city elections	October 23, 2027	5 p.m. on the 10th day before the election (M.G.L. c. 51 s. 26). Municipal opt-out of mail voting must be voted at least 45 days before the election (M.G.L. c. 54 s. 25B).

Ask the clerk whether the town has adopted a charter or bylaw that moves the paper deadline or adds a signature requirement; local acts override the c. 53 defaults in many towns.

Campaign finance rules in Massachusetts

State-level campaign finance in Massachusetts is overseen by Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) through OCPF electronic depository filing (mayoral and large-city council candidates only).

Where local candidates file: Every candidate on a municipal ballot files an M101 organizational form with the local election official, usually the city or town clerk, and discloses activity on the M102 report filed with that same clerk. The exceptions are mayoral candidates everywhere and city council candidates in Boston, Brockton, Cambridge, Fall River, Framingham, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Malden, New Bedford, Newton, Quincy, Somerville, Springfield, Waltham, and Worcester: they file electronically with OCPF in the depository system, which M.G.L. c. 55 s. 19 requires for mayors and for councils in cities of 65,000 or more people. Clerks post reports with $1,000 or more in activity on the municipal website.

Contribution limits: An individual may give a candidate an aggregate of $1,000 per calendar year, money and in-kind combined (M.G.L. c. 55 s. 7A). A PAC may give $500 per year and a local party committee $1,000 per year. Cash is capped at $50 per person per year, cash-app payments at $50, money orders at $100, minors at $25, and registered lobbyists at $200. Corporations, LLCs, LLPs, and partnerships may not contribute at all. A candidate may give or loan unlimited personal funds to their own campaign (OCPF municipal candidate guide, checked 2026-09-09).

Reporting: Town candidates who file locally file a pre-preliminary report 8 days before a preliminary election (if on that ballot) and a pre-election report 8 days before the election; your clerk supplies the remaining reporting periods and due dates, and OCPF's reporting-period calculator computes them. Generally two or three reports are due in an election year (OCPF municipal candidate guide).

Candidates who spend only personal funds do not need a campaign bank account; everyone else opens a separate account with an IRS EIN before depositing contributions.
Collect the residential address of every donor and the occupation and employer of anyone giving $200 or more in a calendar year; you must report them.

Limits and thresholds change. Treat the figures here as a starting point and confirm the current schedule with Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) before you accept a check. Our campaign finance basics guide covers the bookkeeping every local candidate needs on day one.

How voting works in Massachusetts

In person, with no-excuse mail voting. Massachusetts voters vote in person on election day or by mail. Since the 2022 VOTES Act, any registered voter may vote early by mail in any municipal preliminary or election unless the select board, board of selectmen, town council, or city council opted out by recorded public vote at least 45 days before that election (M.G.L. c. 54 s. 25B). Mail ballot applications must reach the clerk by 5 p.m. on the 5th business day before the election.

Early voting: In-person early voting is required only for biennial state elections (17th through 4th day before) and state primaries (10th through 4th day). For a stand-alone municipal election it happens only if the select board, board of selectmen, town council, or city council votes to authorize it; municipal elections held the same day as a state election get it automatically (M.G.L. c. 54 s. 25B).
Mail ballots: Available to every registered voter in a municipal election unless the municipality opted out at least 45 days before. Apply to the city or town clerk; applications are seasonable only if received by 5 p.m. on the 5th business day before the preliminary or election (M.G.L. c. 54 s. 25B).
Registration deadline: 5 p.m. on the 10th day before the election (M.G.L. c. 51 s. 26); no election-day registration
Same-day registration: No

Knowing who has already voted: Registrars must prepare and update lists of all voters who cast early ballots, in the form the Secretary prescribes (M.G.L. c. 54 s. 25B). For a municipal election that data lives with your city or town clerk, not the state: ask the election office for the list of voters who have applied for mail ballots and the running list of ballots returned, and refresh it each week during the mail window. Any single voter can check their own ballot status on the Secretary's My Voter Registration Status page.

Local government in Massachusetts: what you can run for

Massachusetts is entirely divided into cities and towns, and municipal government is where local power sits. Most county governments were abolished in the 1990s; the counties that remain elect a few officers but do not run elections or schools. Towns govern through a select board (formerly board of selectmen) and either an open town meeting or a representative town meeting; cities operate under charters with a mayor and city council or a council-manager form. School committees are elected in every city and town, and regional school districts elect committees across several towns.

Select board (board of selectmen)
Town meeting member (representative town meeting)
Town moderator
School committee
Regional school district committee
City council or board of aldermen
Mayor
Planning board
Board of health
Library trustee
Housing authority
Board of assessors (where elected)
County commissioner (remaining counties)

When local elections happen: Towns hold the annual town election in February, March, April, May, or June, tied to the annual town meeting (M.G.L. c. 39 s. 9); the exact date is set by bylaw or charter. Cities vote under their charters, most on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November of odd-numbered years with a preliminary in September. Municipal elections are not consolidated with the November even-year state election unless a city's charter aligns them.

Running your Massachusetts campaign on Culper

Culper does not license voter data in Massachusetts today. You upload the Massachusetts voter file described above as a CSV, and every feature runs on it: search and lists, plain-English queries, texting and email, block walking, and volunteer coordination. Online donation processing is in development; ask about timing on the onboarding call. Your file stays in your campaign's workspace and is never shared with another campaign.

Set up your Massachusetts campaign in an afternoon

Upload the voter file, ask for your first list in plain English, and hand your volunteers the walking app. Signup is open to candidates in every state. Pricing is set after a short call so it matches the size of the race.

Get started Book a demo

Massachusetts questions we get asked

Where do I get the voter list for a Massachusetts town election?

From your city or town clerk or board of registrars, not from the state. Under the Massachusetts Public Records Law most voter and election records are public and can be requested from the local election office, which may charge only the cost of producing the record. Ask for the current voter list with party enrollment and precinct, and ask whether the office can add voting history from the statewide VRIS system.

Can a local candidate buy the Massachusetts statewide voter file?

No. The statewide list of registered voters is not a public record in Massachusetts. M.G.L. c. 51 s. 47C limits the central registry to state party committees, statewide candidate committees, state ballot question committees, and others the Secretary designates, under a licensing agreement that prohibits sharing or selling it. A select board or school committee campaign uses the municipal list from the clerk.

Where does a Massachusetts school committee or select board candidate file campaign finance reports?

With the city or town clerk, on OCPF's M101 organizational form and M102 reports. Only mayoral candidates and city council candidates in the 17 largest cities (Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Lowell, Cambridge, and the others OCPF lists) file electronically with OCPF in the depository system, which M.G.L. c. 55 s. 19 requires for cities of 65,000 or more.

How many signatures do I need on nomination papers in Massachusetts?

For a town office in Massachusetts, 1% of the vote for governor in the district at the last state election, with a floor of 20 signatures and a ceiling of 50 (M.G.L. c. 53 s. 6). City offices default to 1% of the gubernatorial vote unless the charter sets its own number. Papers are due to the clerk by 5 p.m. on the 35th day before the election (M.G.L. c. 53 s. 10).

Is there vote by mail in Massachusetts town elections?

Yes, unless your town opted out. M.G.L. c. 54 s. 25B lets any registered voter vote early by mail in any municipal preliminary or election, but the select board, board of selectmen, town council, or city council may opt out by recorded vote after a public hearing at least 45 days before the election. In-person early voting for a stand-alone municipal election happens only if that body votes to authorize it.

What is the contribution limit for a Massachusetts city council candidate?

An individual may give $1,000 per calendar year to a candidate and that candidate's committee, counting money and in-kind together (M.G.L. c. 55 s. 7A). PACs are limited to $500 a year, local party committees to $1,000, cash to $50, and corporations may not give at all. The Massachusetts candidate may put in unlimited personal funds.

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Sources

Facts on this page were checked against the official sources below on September 9, 2026. Rules change between cycles; when a number here and the agency disagree, the agency is right.