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 6 - Nomination Papers; Contents; Number of Signatures; Unenrolled Candidates

Section 6. Nominations of candidates for any offices to be filled at a state election may be made by nomination papers, stating the facts required by section eight and signed in the aggregate by not less than the following number of voters: for governor and lieutenant governor, attorney general, United States senator, and presidential electors, ten thousand; for state secretary, state treasurer, and state auditor, five thousand; for representative in congress, two thousand; for state senator, three hundred; for state representative, one hundred and fifty; for councillor, district attorney, clerk of courts, register of probate, register of deeds, county commissioner, sheriff, and county treasurer, one thousand, except for clerk of courts, register of probate, register of deeds, county commissioner, sheriff, and county treasurer, in Barnstable, Berkshire, Franklin, and Hampshire counties, five hundred, and for any such offices in Dukes and Nantucket counties, twenty-five. In the case of the offices of governor and lieutenant governor, only nomination papers containing the names and addresses of candidates for both offices shall be valid. Nominations of candidates for offices to be filled at a city or town election, except where city charters or general or special laws provide otherwise and nominations of candidates for the office of regional district school committee members elected district-wide, may be made by like nomination papers, signed in the aggregate by not less than such number of voters as will equal one percent of the entire vote cast for governor at the preceding biennial state election in the electoral district or division for which the officers are to be elected, but in no event by less than twenty voters in the case of an office to be filled at a town election or election to a regional district school committee elected district-wide; provided, however, that no more than fifty signatures of voters shall be required on nomination papers for such town office or regional district school committee elected district-wide. At a first election to be held in a newly established ward, the number of signatures of voters upon a nomination paper of a candidate who is to be voted for only in such ward shall be at least fifty.
The name of a candidate for election to any office who is nominated otherwise than by a political party, generally referred to as an ''Unenrolled'' candidate, shall not be printed on the ballot at a state election, or on the ballot at any city or town election following a city or town primary, unless a certificate from the registrars of voters of the city or town wherein such person is a registered voter, certifying that he is not enrolled as a member of any political party, is filed with the state secretary or city or town clerk on or before the last day provided in section ten for filing nomination papers. Said registrars shall issue each certificate forthwith upon request of any such candidate who is not a member of a political party or his authorized representative. No such certificate shall be issued to any such candidate who shall have been an enrolled member of any political party during the time prior to the last day for filing nomination papers as provided in section ten, and on or after the day by which a primary candidate is required by section forty-eight to establish enrollment in a political party.
Sections six and ten shall not apply to primary candidates nominated under sections twenty-three to seventy I, inclusive, except as expressly provided otherwise.