Voter Information for 2020

VOTER INFORMATION:

VOTER REGISTRATION: 

The deadline for registering to vote is October 24 for the general election. Register online at https://www.sec.state.ma.us/OVR/

VOTING BY MAIL – GETTING A BALLOT:

All registered voters should have already received an application for a mail in ballot. If you didn’t receive an application, get one at https://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elepdf/2020-Vote-by-Mail-Application.pdf

If, on your state primary ballot application, you selected that you want to participate in mail-in voting for all 2020 elections, you won’t need to repeat the application process.

The U.S. Postal Service recommends submitting this application no later than October 20 to ensure the timely delivery of your ballot. A ballot cannot be mailed to you if your application reaches your local election office after 5 p.m. on October 28. You can return the application in person to your clerk’s office, deposit it in the clerk’s secure drop box, or mail it. There is a secure drop box located outside of the Freetown Town Hall, and another located inside the lobby of Fall River Government Center.

VOTING BY MAIL – RETURNING YOUR COMPLETED BALLOT:

Ballots must be postmarked by November 3 and delivered to your local election office by November 6 in order to be counted. Ballots that arrive prior to 8 p.m. on November 3 do not require a postmark.

You can also hand deliver your ballot to the city/town clerk’s office. Given the questions popping up about the USPS’ ability to manage the flood of mail created by mail-in voting, you should strongly consider delivering your ballot personally or have a trusted person do that for you.

There is a secure drop box located outside of the Freetown Town Hall, and another located inside the lobby of Fall River Government Center.  If you are delivering your ballot on Election Day, it’s best to hand it to an election officer so that your non-postmarked ballot doesn’t get confused with the postmarked ballots that are allowed to be accepted until 5pm on Friday after the election.

VOTING BY MAIL: PROCESSING

When the clerk receives your mail-in ballot, the return envelope will be opened and the sealed early ballot envelope’s barcode will be read by the voter tracking system. This is equivalent to going to the checkout table at a polling place on Election Day. At this point, you have been logged as having voted.

Prior to early in-person voting, your ballot will be stored by precinct in a secure area. Once voter registration has closed and anytime up to Election Day, the clerk will run the mail-in ballots through the voting machine(s) and maintain those voting statistics in confidence until after the close of voting on Election Day.

VOTING BY MAIL – TRACK YOUR BALLOT:

Curious about if your ballot has been mailed to you, or that it has been processed at your clerk’s office? Use this link to find out:

https://www.sec.state.ma.us/wheredoivotema/track/trackmyballot.aspx

VOTING EARLY:

Early in-person voting for the general election begins on Saturday, October 17 and ends on Friday, October 30. Check with your town/city clerk’s office to confirm locations and hours of operation for early in-person voting. Scheduling information can be found below:

https://www.fallriverma.org/category/elections/

https://www.freetownma.gov/home/news/massachusetts-state-election-tuesday-november-3-2020

VOTING IN-PERSON:

Polls will be open from 7am to 8pm on Tuesday, November 3 for the general election. Find out where to cast your ballot at https://www.sec.state.ma.us/wheredoivotema/bal/MyElectionInfo.aspx