Help me, lazyweb!

[mmcirvin]

So, does anyone in Massachusetts know what to do about voter registration if you move from one town to another (within Massachusetts) before an election, but after the deadline for registration to vote? Do you register for a residential address that is not yet your real address, do you vote in a ward and precinct that does not contain your real address, or do you just not get to vote in that situation?

(We've just realized that the gubernatorial primary is a few days after our planned move, and the registration deadline is Wednesday.)

Reading between the lines of FAQs and such, my guess is that you can only re-register after you've moved, and in this situation you vote at your old voting location. But nobody says this explicitly, and I want to be sure.

(Update: ckd has the answer—you can vote at your old location for up to six months or until an election for which you've registered at the new location.)

Comments

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

It's that way in California, FWIW.

[plorkwort.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, you have to vote at your old registration location, since you can't actually register at the new till you're really living there, but you should be able to get an absentee ballot (under the criterion "you will be absent from your city or town on Election day").

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

It's no great hardship to actually go to our old voting location, but it'd suck to go and be told I can't vote there.

[ckd]

According to this, you can vote in your old location for up to 6 months or until you register at the new location. That cites to MGL Ch 51 Sec 1 which explicitly states "No person otherwise qualified to vote for national or state officers shall, by reason of a change of residence within the commonwealth, be disqualified from voting for such officers in the city or town from which he has removed his residence until the expiration of six months from such removal."

So you are good to vote in the old place.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Lazyweb wins! Thanks!