Massachusetts. Elections Division
The Elections Division within the state secretary's office is responsible for coordinating all municipal, state, and federal elections within the Commonwealth. While there is no special legislation that authorized the organization of these duties under a division, its existence is derived from provisions of MGLA c 9, s 2, which enable the state secretary to "employ such clerical assistance as he may deem necessary to carry out the laws relative to primaries and elections." These provisions first became law in 1911, when the secretary was authorized to employ "temporary" clerical assistance for elections (St 1911, c 550, s 19). In 1913 the word "temporary" was removed (St 1913, c 835, s 127). However, until 1948 only one permanent clerk was allowed for this purpose under the budget. In that year, three permanent positions were funded (St 1948, c 198, item 0504-01) and a supervisor of the Division of Elections named. Since the 1960s such personnel have commonly been designated as the Elections (or Election) Division.
Notwithstanding the relatively recent specific existence of an Elections Division, the state secretary's involvement in elections is grounded in the Massachusetts Constitution, which calls for town officials to transmit voting returns for statewide offices to the secretary's office (Const Pt 2, C 1, S 2 and Pt 2, C 2, SS 1-2)
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Publication Date | Publishing Account | Status | Note | View |
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2016-08-15 12:08:54 am |
System Service |
published |
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2016-08-15 12:08:54 am |
System Service |
ingest cpf |
Initial ingest from EAC-CPF |
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