In the Internet and smartphone era, almost everything is instantaneous and on-demand, so it can be a bit frustrating to find voting isn’t like that. There are deadlines and processing periods that can add up to weeks of lead time. Plan ahead! Don’t leave it to the last minute! You must complete two steps to vote in person or three to vote by mail:
Vote in person
- Register or pre-register. If you just want to vote in the General Elections you don’t have to declare a party. But if you also want to vote in the Primary Elections of a particular party (Hint, hint, the Democrats 😉 ) you have to declare which party’s primary you want to participate in. The deadline to register for the 2021 Town Election is March 9th.
- Vote in-person – Sudbury has six precincts and two polling locations. To find your precinct, please visit WhereDoIVoteMA.com.
You can pre-register at age 16, but you have to be 18 before you can actually vote. In addition, you must be a citizen of the United States and you must not be currently incarcerated by reason of a felony conviction.
Vote by mail
Vote by Mail and Early Voting are back permanently, as of June 2022
- Register or pre-register, as above.
- Complete an Absentee or Vote by Mail application. Why are there two kinds? Good question. Vote by Mail is more common (everyone can do it) but for a few rare situations, Absentee is needed.
Applications must be received by the Town Clerk’s Office in advance of the election. The deadline is generally five days before the election, but don’t wait that long: allow several weeks for mailing delay etc. More info here. - A few weeks before election day you’ll receive your ballot in the mail. Carefully follow the instructions that come with your ballot. Mail it in immediately or if not at least a week before the deadline. For federal elections the return envelope is pre-paid. Otherwise you’ll need to supply adequate postage, typically two Forever stamps. Alternatively, you can take your ballot to the 24/7, no-contact, all-precinct drop box the the Town Clerk’s Office at 322 Concord Rd. Check the deadline. Do not attempt to hand deliver mail-in ballots at polling stations: they don’t take them.
Optionally, you can track your federal and state ballots at TrackMyBallotMA.com. There’s no automated way of tracking township ballots. In principle, you can email the town clerk, but we hesitate to recommend you do that. Each request requires the office to do a manual check and if everyone did it, they’d need to hire a lot more staff!
Where Can I Get More Info?
More MA Election Division info here. National sites: IWillVote (in English) IWillVote (en español)
What Posts Can I Vote For?
In Sudbury, you can vote for federal, state, county, and township posts. Exactly who the incumbent is and what post they hold depends on your precinct. You can get the list of your federal, state, and county representative and the posts they hold here. At the township level, some staff are elected, and some are appointed. The list is here (scroll down past the bullet list of committees to the tables with staff). The ones you can vote for are marked “Elected” in the “Appointed by:” column.
Where Can I See the Candidates Debate?
Sudbury League of Women Voters hosts candidate debates. You can watch live or on-demand via Sudbury TV
When Can I Vote?
The Town Clerk posts about upcoming elections. Or go to https://sudbury.ma.us/ then click on “Elections>Current/Upcoming” in the secondary Menu bar. In addition, Massachusetts now has Early Voting, both in-person and on-line. Again, check out the Town Clerks’ page for dates.
Who Won?
The results are posted here.