Mass. Gen. Laws » Part I Title VIII Chapter 53
Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 53, § 38 (2026)

Party designation of voters and eligibility to vote under party enrollments; certificate to establish, change or cancel enrollment

✓ current as of July 2026
Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section MAmalegislature.gov (official) JustiaChapter on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

Section 38. No voter enrolled under this section or section thirty-seven shall be allowed to receive the ballot of any political party except that in which he is so enrolled; provided, however, that, except as otherwise provided in said section thirty-seven, a voter may, except within a period beginning at eight o'clock in the evening of the twentieth day prior to any primary and ending with the day of such primary, establish, change or cancel his enrollment by forwarding to the board of registrars of voters a certificate signed by such voter under the pains and penalties of perjury, requesting to have his enrollment established with a party or political designation, changed to another party or political designation, or cancelled, or by appearing in person before a member of said board and requesting, in writing, that such enrollment be so established, changed or cancelled. Except as otherwise provided in section twelve of chapter four, sections one and two of chapter fifty-two, and sections forty A and forty-eight of this chapter, such enrollment, change or cancellation shall take effect upon the receipt by said board of such certificate or appearance, as the case may be; provided, however, that no such enrollment, change or cancellation shall take effect for a primary during the twenty days prior to such primary; provided further, that a voter registered in a political designation that is not a political party as defined in section 1 of chapter 50 shall be considered unenrolled for the purpose of the primary and shall be eligible to receive a ballot of a political party of the voter's choosing. No voter enrolled as a member of one political party or political designation shall be allowed to receive the ballot of any other political party, upon a claim by him of erroneous enrolment, except upon a certificate of such error from the registrars, which shall be presented to the presiding officer of the primary and shall be attached to, and considered a part of the voting list and returned and preserved therewith; but the political party or political designation enrolment of a voter shall not preclude him from receiving at a city or town primary the ballot of any municipal party, though in no one primary shall he receive more than one party ballot.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 7 cases, 1972–2004 · leading case: Bachrach v. Sec'y of the Commonwealth, 415 N.E.2d 832 (Mass. 1981).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
Bachrach v. Sec'y of the Commonwealth, 415 N.E.2d 832 (Mass. 1981). · cites it 4× “) Reference to Independent voters at G.L.c. 53, § 38, dealing with change of voters' enrollment, was eliminated by § 3 of the 1979 enactment.”
McClure v. Galvin, 386 F.3d 36 (1st Cir. 2004). · cites it 3× “” Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 53, § 37 . The change of status back to unenrolled is effective once the board receives the certificate.”
Metros v. Sec'y of the Commonwealth, 484 N.E.2d 1015 (Mass. 1985). “G. L. c. 53, § 38 (1984 ed.). 5 General Laws c.”
Langone v. Sec'y of the Commonwealth, 446 N.E.2d 43 (Mass. 1983). “G. L. c. 53, § 38. This section also provides that at primaries a clerk shall make available within the polling place certificates to enable a voter to make such changes.”
Opinion of the Justices to the House of Representatives, 333 N.E.2d 380 (Mass. 1975). “And under G. L. c. 53, § 38, a party member who wishes to vote in another party’s primary must cancel his party registration at least twenty-eight days before the primary election.”
Melahn v. Sec'y of the Commonwealth, 459 N.E.2d 830 (Mass. App. Ct. 1984). “52, § 1, provides for only two types of elected members of a State committee of a political party: (1) those persons who are elected by the voters at a presidential primary who are members of the party in question (see G. L. c. 53, § 38, as amended through St.”
Johnson v. State Ballot Law Comm'n, 287 N.E.2d 597 (Mass. 1972). “Under G. L. c. 53, § 38, as amended through St.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.