2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title VIII - Elections › Chapter 51 - Voters › Section 37 - Annual Register; Omitted Names; Notice

Section 37. The registrars, as soon as they have prepared the lists required by section four, shall prepare an annual register containing the names of all qualified voters in their city or town for the current year, beginning with January first, except the name of any person who provides the registrars with a copy of a court order granting protection, or evidence of residence in a protective shelter, or an affidavit signed by a chief of police or his designee that said person is entitled to have certain information withheld from the public under section 24C of chapter 265. Such names shall be arranged in alphabetical order, and, opposite to the name of each voter, shall be placed his residence on January first preceding or on any subsequent day when he became an inhabitant of the city or town. The registrars shall enter in the annual register every name contained in the lists prepared by them under section four which they can identify as that of a person whose name was borne on the voting list of the city or town at the last preceding election or town meeting, giving the residence of each such person on January first of the current year. They shall make all inquiries and investigations necessary to identify such person, and they shall not enter in the annual register the name of a person objected to by any registrar, nor shall they enter in such register as residing at any licensed inn, lodging house or public lodging house the name of a person which has not been reported to them under section ten A, until such person has been duly notified and given an opportunity to be heard. They shall forthwith enter in the annual register the name of every person who has registered as a voter in the current year. They shall, on or before the first Monday of June in each year, send notice in writing to each voter of the preceding year whose name has not been entered in the annual register of the current year that the name of such voter may be removed from the voting list if the voter fails to respond to the notice and does not vote in the next two biennial state elections following the mailing of such notice. Such notice shall (1) be postage prepaid; (2) contain a preaddressed and postage prepaid return card; (3) be sent by forwardable mail; (4) instruct the voter to return the card before the last day to register if the voter did not change residence from the city or town; and (5) contain additional information about remaining eligible to vote, as prescribed by the state secretary. The registrars shall prepare a list of the names of voters not so entered, which shall be open to public inspection in their principal office, and shall be posted by copy in accordance with the same schedule of times and in the places where copies of voting lists are required to be posted under section fifty-seven. The registrars, in addition, may publish such lists in a newspaper devoted wholly or chiefly to the publication of local or general news. Copies of said lists shall be made available to members of the public upon payment of the cost of the copying thereof.