Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. Chapter 271 of the acts of 1933 is hereby amended by striking out section 4, as amended by chapter 116 of the acts of 1983, and inserting in place thereof the following section:-

Section 4. Notwithstanding the provisions of the fourth paragraph of section ten of chapter fifty-three of the General Laws or any other general or special law to the contrary, nominations of all candidates for town meeting members, including incumbents, to be elected under this act shall be made by nomination papers, which shall bear no political designation, shall be signed by not less than thirty voters of the precinct in which the candidate resides, and shall be filed with the town clerk at least ten days before the elections. No nomination papers shall be valid in respect to any candidate whose written acceptance is not thereon or attached thereto when filed.

SECTION 2. Said chapter 271 is hereby further amended by inserting after section 4 the following section:-

Section 4A. Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the contrary, upon close of the period for nomination and establishing candidacy for town meeting members, the board of registrars shall meet for the purpose of determining the order in which names of candidates for town meeting member shall appear on the ballot for each precinct. The registrars shall transcribe the names of candidates for each precinct on separate sheets of paper of uniform size. For each precinct, such sheets shall be placed in a box whereupon the box shall be shaken and mixed by one of the registrars who shall then, without seeing the names thereon, openly draw each sheet of paper from said box reading the name of each candidate as each such sheet is drawn. The registrars shall record the order in which such names are drawn and the names of candidates shall appear on the ballot in such order. This process shall be repeated for each precinct.

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage.