Student Voting Guide | Massachusetts
Registration
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ELE/eleidx.htm
Your registration form is due by 8 p.m. on the 20th day before the election—it can either be received at the registrar’s office or postmarked by that day.[1] You may register to vote if you will be 18 by the next preliminary, primary, special or general election.[2]
Residency
At School. Students can register and vote while temporarily attending college in Massachusetts as long as they currently consider this to be their principal address. To have voting residency in Massachusetts you only need to have the intent to make your school address your home for the present, without respect to your “future plans.”[3]
The Massachusetts Constitution requires that voters be “inhabitants”[4] and the state’s laws require them to be “residents.”[5] Both terms have been defined to mean domicile.[6] Massachusetts courts have long interpreted these provisions to allow students to establish residence in their college towns, and today, students can choose to make their school address their voting residency as long as they currently consider this to be their principal residence.
At Home. Students who lived in Massachusetts prior to attending school and who wish to establish or keep their Massachusetts voting residency (i.e., at their parents’ address), should have no problem doing so unless they have already registered to vote in another state. Like all states, Massachusetts allows students to keep their voting residency even if they move out of the county or state to attend school. The only way you will lose this residency is if you “abandon” it by asserting residency in a new state. While registering to vote in another state is not automatically considered an abandonment of residency in Massachusetts, some judges or officials might view it as such.
Effect on Driver’s Licenses. If you are driving your own car in Massachusetts, you should be aware that registering to vote in Massachusetts makes you a Massachusetts resident for the purposes of license and registration.[7] You have 30 days after establishing residency to register your car in the state.[8]
Challenges to Residency. If after receiving your registration it appears that you are not a resident, the registrars can deny your registration after giving you notice and an opportunity to respond.[9] Your qualifications can also be challenged by any registered voter.[10]
If your eligibility to vote is challenged by a registered voter before the election, the registrars must first check to see whether the challenge is legitimate.[11] If they think there are grounds for the challenge, the registrars must give you notice and hold a hearing, where you can testify under oath, present evidence, and be represented by a lawyer to prove your residency.[12]
Your eligibility to vote can also be challenged at the polls, either by a partisan challenger or by a poll worker.[13] If your right to vote is challenged, you will be asked to take an oath affirming your eligibility, but you will be allowed to cast a challenged ballot, which will be counted.[14]
Identification
Only two types of Massachusetts voters have to show ID at the polls: first-time voters who registered by mail whose identifying numbers (Massachusetts driver’s license number or non-driver ID number, or the last four digits of a Social Security number) cannot be verified by the state; and voters who are marked as inactive. You can get marked as inactive for failing to respond to your town’s annual census or if the acknowledgement notice sent to you after you register is returned as undeliverable. These voters will have to show a current and valid photo ID, or a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows their name and address as registered. Cell phone bills, student housing bills, or online printouts should all be accepted.[15] A student ID will only suffice if it displays your name and the address from which you are registering.[16] (Unfortunately most student IDs only have your name and the main address of the school, but not the physical address at which you live). You can send a copy of your ID when you register, too, in order to avoid having to show it at the polls. If you cannot show ID, you’ll have to vote by provisional ballot, which will be counted if you are an eligible voter.[17]
Absentee Voting
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elepdf/absentee_ballot.pdf
If you are a registered voter in Massachusetts but will be away from your residence because you are attending an institution of higher education, you can vote using an absentee ballot from the city or town in which you are registered in Massachusetts.[18] Absentee ballot applications are available online on the web site of the Secretary of State at the above link. Your application for an absentee ballot must be received by the town clerk before noon on the day before Election Day.[19] Your actual ballot must be received by the clerk by the close of the polls on Election Day.[20] Neither your application nor your ballot needs to be notarized or witnessed.
Last Updated in April 2010
[1] Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 51, §§ 26, 42H.
[2] Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 51, § 47A.
[3] Hershkoff v. Board of Registrars of Voters, 321 N.E.2d 656, 664 (Mass. 1974).
[4] Mass. Const. pt. 1, art. IX.
[5] Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 51, § 1 (West 2010).
[6] Opinion of the Justices, 46 Mass. 587, 588 (1843).
[7] Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 90, § 3.
[8] Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 90, § 3.
[9] Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 51, § 47.
[10] Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 51, § 49.
[11] Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 51, § 49 (West 2010).
[12] Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. Ch. 51 § 49 (West 2010).
[13] Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 54, §§ 23, 85A.
[14] Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 54, § 85 (West 2010).
[15] Interview with William Rosenberry, Elections Specialist, Massachusetts Secretary of State’s Office (July 9, 2008).
[16] Interview with William Rosenberry, Elections Specialist, Massachusetts Secretary of State’s Office (July 9, 2008).
[17] Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. Ch. 54, § 76C (West 2010).
[18] Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. Ch. 54, § 86.
[19] Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. Ch. 54, § 89.
[20] Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. Ch. 54, § 93.
