Massachusetts General Laws
Chapter 53 - Nominations, Questions to Be Submitted to the Voters, Primaries and Caucuses
Section 61 - Nomination Papers; Filing; Certification; Correction of District

Section 61. All nomination papers of candidates to be voted for at city or town primaries shall be filed with the city or town clerk not less than thirty-five days previous to the day on which the primary is to be held for which the nominations are made. Every such nomination paper shall be submitted at or before five o'clock in the afternoon of the fourteenth day preceding the day on which it must be filed to the registrars of the city or town where the signers appear to be voters, and the registrars shall check each name to be certified by them on the nomination paper and shall forthwith certify thereon the number of signatures so checked which are names of voters both in the city or town and in the district for which the nomination is made and only names so checked shall be deemed to be names of qualified voters for the purposes of nomination. The registrars need not certify a greater number of names than are required to make a nomination, increased by one fifth thereof. Names not certified in the first instance shall not thereafter be certified on the same nomination papers. The city or town clerk shall not be required, in any case, to receive nomination papers for a candidate after receiving papers containing a sufficient number of certified names to make a nomination, increased by one fifth thereof.
The registrars shall inform the candidate submitting such papers if the designation of the district only in which he seeks office is incorrect, and shall give said candidate the opportunity to insert the correct designation on such papers before the signatures are certified. The registrars shall, if the candidate so desires, allow a change of district on the nomination papers, and the registrar and the candidate shall both initial the change of district so made and further shall in writing explain the change of district causing three copies to be made, one each for the registrar and candidate and one to be attached to the nomination papers. If the correct district designation is not so inserted, the nomination papers shall not be approved. In no case may a correction be made to change the office for which such candidate is nominated.
There shall not be printed on the ballot at a city or town primary the name of any person as a candidate for nomination for any office to be filled at a city or town election unless such person has been an enrolled member of the political party whose nomination he seeks throughout the ninety days prior to the last day for submitting primary nomination papers to the registrars of voters prior to said primary, or is a newly registered voter of the city or town enrolled in the political party.

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