Massachusetts voters have it easy when it comes to casting ballots by mail for national and state-wide elections.
Only in municipal elections do communities have the right to “opt-out” from mail-in voting.
To make life even easier for registered voters in the Bay State, staffers in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin sent mail-in ballot applications to all registered voters in January.
What’s Massachusetts’ mail-in system?
Massachusetts is a “no excuse” early voting/mail-in ballot state, meaning there is no need for the voter to provide a reason for casting a ballot by mail.
There are some rules, however.
Applications requesting mail-in ballots are due five business days before each scheduled election. That means voters looking to vote by mail in the Bay State’s presidential primary on March 5 will have to have their ballot requests in the possession of election officials, usually the municipal clerk, by 5 p.m. Feb. 27.
The requests for the ballots can be made online, by mail or through an e-mail or fax. The forms are available on the secretary of state’s website. Once voters confirm their registration status, they can complete the application and request main-in ballots for next month’s presidential primary, for the state primary on Sept. 3 or the general election on Nov. 5.