2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title VIII - Elections › Chapter 53 - Nominations, Questions to Be Submitted to the Voters, Primaries and Caucuses › Section 10 - Certificates of Nomination and Nomination Papers; Time for Filing

Section 10. All certificates of nomination and nomination papers of candidates for the office of state representative, state senator, executive council, or county office shall be filed with the state secretary on or before the last Tuesday in May of the year in which a state election is to be held. Certificates of nomination or nomination papers for the office of senator in congress, representative in congress, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, treasurer and receiver-general, state auditor and state secretary, shall be filed on or before the last Tuesday in August of the year in which a state election is to be held. If there is a special election to fill the office of senator or representative in congress, all certificates of nomination and nomination papers shall be filed on or before the sixth Tuesday preceding the day of such election. If there is a special election to fill any other state office, all certificates of nomination and nomination papers shall be filed on or before the ninth Tuesday preceding the day of such election. Nomination papers for presidential elector shall be filed on or before the last Tuesday in August of the year in which a presidential election is to be held.
In any city, except Boston, certificates of nomination and nomination papers for any city election shall be filed on or before the thirty-fifth day preceding such city election. In any city, except Boston, the time for presenting nomination papers for certification to the registrars of voters, and for certifying the same, shall be governed by section seven, notwithstanding any contrary provision in any special law. In any city where primaries are held, under authority of general or special law, for the nomination of candidates for city offices, certificates of nomination and nomination papers shall be filed not later than the last day fixed for the filing of nomination papers for such primaries. In any city where preliminary elections for the nomination of candidates for a city office are held, nomination or other like papers required to be filed by such candidates shall be filed on or before the thirty-fifth day preceding the day of the preliminary election, notwithstanding any contrary provision in any special law.
Any provision of general or special law to the contrary notwithstanding, the last day for filing with the town clerk certificates of nomination or nomination papers for the nomination of town offices shall be the thirty-fifth day preceding the date of the election. In any town, the time for presenting nomination papers for certification to the registrars of voters, and for certifying the same, shall be governed by section seven, notwithstanding any contrary provision in any special law.
Any incumbent town meeting member may become a candidate for election by giving written notice thereof to the town clerk not later than twenty-one days prior to the last day and hour for filing nomination papers notwithstanding any contrary provision in any special law.
Certificates of nomination and nomination papers shall be filed before five o'clock in the afternoon of the last day fixed therefor.