EAIElectoral Access Index

The statute codifies three structural safeguards for election administration independence: (1) appointment by multiple branches (mayor with approval of board of aldermen, not unilateral executive control), (2) fixed, staggered terms (ranging from one to four years, ensuring continuity and limiting turnover control), and (3) balanced composition through mandatory rotation. These procedural protections are statutorily enumerated, not left to administrative discretion.

“there shall be a board of registrars of voters, consisting of four persons, who shall be appointed by the mayor with the approval of the board of aldermen. When a board of registrars is first appointed after the acceptance of the provisions aforesaid, two registrars shall be appointed in February or March following such acceptance for terms respectively of three and four years, beginning with April first next ensuing. The city clerk of such city shall cease to be a member of the board of registrars on April first, but the remaining two members of the existing board of registrars whose terms do not then expire shall continue to hold office for their respective terms of one and two years. In February or March of every year after such first appointments, there shall in like manner be appointed one registrar of voters for the term of four years, beginning with April first following.”

No section in the FTS-surfaced candidates satisfies this criterion. Best signal: This section (M.G.L. c. 56, § 39) regulates political advertisement disclosure requirements and does not address voter eligibility, minimum voting age, or residency requirements for voters. The criterion requires constitutional grounding of age and residency voting qualifications; this statute deals only with paid advertisement authorization and is therefore not applicable to the eligibility criterion.

The statute codifies disqualification criteria (guardianship, felony incarceration, corrupt practices) in statutory language, satisfying the statutory-grounding requirement. However, the text provides no defined restoration procedure—no mechanism for restoring voting rights after guardianship is lifted, after felony sentence completion, or after corrupt-practices disqualification expires. The reference to 'temporarily or permanently disqualified' implies different durations exist elsewhere in law, but no restoration process is enumerated here.

“not being a person under guardianship or incarcerated in a correctional facility due to a felony conviction, and not being temporarily or permanently disqualified by law because of corrupt practices in respect to elections”

No section in the FTS-surfaced candidates satisfies this criterion. Best signal: This section addresses an informational portal for checking voter registration status, not the substantive procedure for restoring voting rights post-felony or other rights loss. While the portal may inform users 'how the user may obtain a voter registration form or restore the user's registration to active status,' it describes only an informational resource, not the statutory codification of restoration procedures, deadlines, or automatic restoration mechanisms that the criterion requires.

Massachusetts M.G.L. c. 54, § 76B establishes the ID requirement directly in statute, not delegated to regulation or administrative discretion. Subsection (b)(1) sets the triggering conditions for ID requirement (mail registration after 2003 and no prior federal election vote), and subsection (b)(2) enumerates acceptable forms of identification in statute. The requirement is clearly statutory.

The statute exhaustively enumerates acceptable ID forms in both in-person and absentee voting contexts: photo ID or documents showing name and address (utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document). The forms are specified in statute without discretionary language, leaving no room for administrative elaboration of what qualifies.

No section in the FTS-surfaced candidates satisfies this criterion. Best signal: Section 76C addresses identification in the context of provisional ballots, establishing that ID is requested but not required—failure to present ID does not prevent a provisional ballot from being cast. The criterion asks whether a free state-issued ID is available when ID is required. Since this statute explicitly does not require ID (it merely requests it), the premise of the criterion does not apply, and the statute does not address free alternative ID provision. The section provides a procedural waiver rather than a requirement-plus-alternative structure.

The statute establishes a clear, enumerated cure procedure for voters without qualifying ID: they may cast a provisional ballot under section 76C. This is a defined statutory mechanism (referenced by statute section number) that provides a remedy when a voter fails to present identification. The procedure is set in statute, not left to administrative discretion.

“A person who desires to vote in person but does not satisfy clause (a) of subparagraph (A) may cast a provisional ballot under section 76C.”

No matching sections in corpus.

No section in the FTS-surfaced candidates satisfies this criterion. Best signal: This section addresses polling place provision and voting line procedures for caucuses, not voter registration deadlines. It contains no enumeration of registration cutoff periods relative to election day, nor any statutory registration deadline. The criterion requires a statutorily-defined registration cutoff; this section does not provide one.

The statute explicitly and exhaustively enumerates the specific registration methods available: registration agencies, individuals and organizations, U.S. mail, online portal, and hand delivery. These methods are set forth in statute rather than left to administrative discretion, providing clear procedural guidance on how voters can register.

“Registrars of voters in cities and towns shall receive completed affidavits of voter registration from registration agencies, from individuals and organizations conducting voter registration, through the United States mail, through the online portal and by hand delivery.”

The statute explicitly mandates that registrars notify a person when their registration is rejected and provide a reasonable opportunity to cure defects. This is a statutory cure procedure — not left to administrative discretion but required by law. The statute also specifies a secondary review step (re-examination after cure attempt) and notice requirement if the defects are not remedied.

“The registrars shall notify any person whose name is not so entered and give him a reasonable opportunity to remedy the defects in his affidavit.”

No section in the FTS-surfaced candidates satisfies this criterion. Best signal: This section addresses objections to nomination papers (candidates' filings), not voter registration challenges. It specifies which bodies consider nomination-paper disputes but does not codify any voter right to challenge a rejected or removed voter registration. The statute does not establish a procedure for voters to contest removal or rejection from the voter roll.

The statute explicitly defines the criteria and procedure for placing and removing voters from an inactive voters list: 2 consecutive years without voting triggers placement, and removal requires failure to vote in 2 consecutive biennial state elections plus mailed notification. The criteria and procedural steps are set by statute rather than left to administrative discretion or regulation.

“The name and address of a voter that is not entered in the annual register pursuant to section 37 for 2 consecutive years and who during that time fails to vote in any election shall be maintained on an inactive voters list until such voter has failed to vote in two consecutive biennial state elections and has thereafter been notified, by mail, of such removal from the inactive voters list.”

The statute mandates written notice before removal, with a statutory cure mechanism: voters may respond to the notice or vote in the next two biennial elections to avoid removal. The notice requirements are enumerated in detail (postage-prepaid, preaddressed card, forwardable mail, registration instruction). This satisfies both the notice requirement and the cure period, grounded entirely in statute with specific procedural steps.

“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 statute requires the state secretary to adopt regulations that include 'data security protocols,' but it delegates the actual codification of security requirements to regulations rather than enumerating them in the statute itself. There is no statutory specification of encryption, breach notification procedures, or access logs—only a directive to adopt regulations covering these matters. This satisfies the procedural requirement to have rules, but not the EAI standard that such rules be statutorily grounded and enumerated.

“The state secretary shall adopt regulations governing such transmission, which shall include, but not be limited to: (i) provisions requiring electronic transmission; (ii) the frequency and nature of such transmissions; (iii) data security protocols; and (iv) integration with the online portals established pursuant to section 33A.”

No section in the FTS-surfaced candidates satisfies this criterion. Best signal: Section 25B addresses early voting by mail, application procedures, and disability accommodations, but contains no language regarding language assistance, bilingual ballots, or language-minority population thresholds. The criterion requires statutory codification of triggers for language assistance; this section does not engage that topic at all.

The statute codifies in law the right to be assisted by a person of the voter's choosing, specifies the qualifying conditions (blindness, other physical disability, inability to read or read in English), and establishes the procedure (voter states need to presiding officer, designates assistant). The rule is statutory, not administrative discretion, and exhaustively enumerates both the conditions triggering the right and the mechanism for exercising it.

“A voter who states to the presiding officer that from blindness or other physical disability or inability to read or to read in the English language he is unable to prepare his ballot or register his vote upon a voting machine shall be assisted in such marking or registering by any person whom he may designate.”

No matching sections in corpus.

This statute sets binding, enumerated constraints on polling-place hours directly in Massachusetts General Law Chapter 54. It specifies maximum closing times (8 p.m.), minimum opening times (7 a.m. for state elections), and minimum duration (13 hours for state elections), leaving no discretion to local administrators. The rules distinguish clearly by election type (state vs. local, city vs. town) and provide concrete mandatory language ('shall').

The section addresses only a subset of mail-in voting procedure—specifically ID requirements and provisional ballot procedures for mail-in voters who fail to present identification. It does not codify the full mail-in procedure (application deadlines, return methods, signature verification standards, or cure procedures for signature mismatches). The section references section 76C for provisional ballots but does not itself enumerate the complete statutory framework for mail-in voting.

“A person who desires to vote by absentee ballot but who does not meet the requirements of subclause (ii) of said clause (a) of said subparagraph (A) may return the absentee ballot by mail, and the ballot shall be treated as a provisional ballot under section 76C.”

M.G.L. c. 54, § 95 is a comprehensive statutory provision that codifies core aspects of Massachusetts's absentee voting framework: return procedures (transmittal of ballots to polling places or central tabulation), temporal requirements (ballots received on or before close of business the day before election), treatment protocols (ballot extraction from envelopes, deposit in ballot boxes, preservation of envelopes), and processing rules (checking voter names on rolls, announcement of voter names, counting procedures after poll closure). The statute explicitly prescribes mandatory procedures for election officers and specifies when and how absent ballots must be handled, directly addressing absentee voting eligibility, application incorporation (via section 86 and 94 cross-references), return, and treatment.

“Any absent voter ballot cast pursuant to section 86 may be opened and deposited into a tabulator in advance of the date of the primary or election in accordance with regulations promulgated by the state secretary; provided, however, that municipalities that do not have a tabulator may open and deposit early voting ballots into a ballot box; provided further, that such ballots shall be kept secured, locked and unexamined and that no results shall be determined or announced until after the time polls close on the date of the primary or election; and provided further, that notice of the date, time and location of any such opening or depositing shall be posted 2 business days in advance of the opening or depositing; and provided further, that the opening or depositing shall be open to the public.”

While the statute permits early voting by mail with specified application deadlines (fifth business day before election) and accessible accommodation procedures set in statute, the section does not establish a fixed early voting period or designated locations by statute. Instead, it grants discretion to local election officials and town councils to determine whether to offer early voting and under what operational conditions, leaving critical implementation details to administrative discretion rather than statutory enumeration. The section addresses mail-in early voting procedure but fails to establish statutorily-mandated early voting periods and locations.

“the select board, board of selectmen, town council or city council of each city and town may, after a public hearing and by recorded and public vote not less than 45 days prior to the date of the preliminary or election, opt out of the provisions of this subsection for any regular or special municipal preliminary or municipal election”

The statute permits secured municipal drop boxes as a return method but does not enumerate placement, security, or chain-of-custody procedures—these details are left to municipal or administrative discretion. Only the existence and general security characterization ('secured') appear in statute; operational specifics are not defined.

“via a secured municipal drop box, where provided”

The statute comprehensively codifies both the right to cast a provisional ballot and the procedure for adjudicating it. The right is established in subsection (a); the casting procedure is detailed in (b)–(c); the adjudication criteria and timeline are specified in (d) and (f) with enumerated eligibility determinations by the city or town clerk; cure/verification procedures are outlined in (g); and voter notification and appeal mechanisms are provided in (i)–(j). All key procedural elements are grounded in statute rather than administrative discretion.

“Whenever a person asserting a right to vote in a primary, caucus, preliminary, or other election appears at the polling place for the precinct in which that person resides, but that person is not permitted to vote, that person shall be allowed to deposit a provisional ballot as provided in this section.”