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

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 53, § 44 (2026)

Nomination papers; number of signatures

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

Section 44. The nomination of candidates for nomination at state primaries shall be by nomination papers. In the case of the governor, lieutenant-governor, attorney general and United States senator, nomination papers shall be signed in the aggregate by at least ten thousand voters; in the case of the state secretary, state treasurer and state auditor, they shall be signed by at least five thousand voters. Such papers for all other offices to be filled at a state election shall be signed by a number of voters as follows: for representative in congress, two thousand voters; for councillor, district attorney, clerk of courts, register of probate, register of deeds, county commissioner, sheriff and county treasurer, one thousand voters, except that in Barnstable, Berkshire, Franklin, and Hampshire counties such papers for nomination to the office of clerk of courts, register of probate, register of deeds, county commissioner, sheriff and county treasurer shall be signed by five hundred voters; for state senator, three hundred voters; for representative in the general court, one hundred and fifty voters. In Dukes and Nantucket counties such papers for nomination to all offices within the county to be filled at any state election shall be signed by twenty-five voters. In no event shall the number of signatures required be more than the number of a candidate for the same office in the same electoral district or division to have his name placed on the ballot as provided for under section six.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 5 cases, 1976–2020 · leading case: Langone v. Sec'y of the Commonwealth, 446 N.E.2d 43 (Mass. 1983).
Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment
Langone v. Sec'y of the Commonwealth, 446 N.E.2d 43 (Mass. 1983). · cites it 5× “The first sentence of G. L. c. 53, § 44, as amended through St.”
LaRouche v. Guzzi, 417 F. Supp. 444 (D. Mass. 1976). · cites it 2× “M.G.L. c. 53, § 44. Nomination papers are available for circulation 12 weeks before the date they are due to be filed, M.”
Garrison v. Merced, 596 N.E.2d 404 (Mass. App. Ct. 1992). “G. L. c. 53, §§ 44 & 46. The candidate’s nomination papers contained 179 certified signatures.”
Goldstein v. Sec'y of the Commonwealth (Mass. 2020). “See G. L. c. 53, § 44. 7 party, as is the case with the plaintiffs, the voter must be registered with the same party or as "unenrolled," meaning registered to vote, but with no party affiliation.”
Brady v. State Ballot Law Comm'n (Mass. 2020). “See G. L. c. 53, § 44. Ultimately, local election officials in towns and cities in the Ninth Congressional District certified 1,066 of her signatures, which Brady then filed with the Secretary by the applicable June 2, 2020, deadline.”
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.