Suffolk County, MA Elections 2026 — Filing Deadlines, Fees & Election Office

The short version.

A plain-language guide to how county ballot access works in all 14 Massachusetts counties, and it starts with a subtraction. Massachusetts abolished most of its county governments. Eight of the fourteen counties have no county commission, no county council and no county treasurer, and have not had one for a quarter of a century. If you have read somewhere that you can run for County Commissioner in Middlesex, Worcester, Essex, Hampden, Hampshire, Berkshire, Franklin or Suffolk County, that office does not exist. Nobody has held it since somewhere between 1997 and 2000.

What did not go away is the county itself. Massachusetts counties still exist as geography and as court districts, and several county-wide offices are still elected by the voters of the county even where the county government is gone. Sheriff, District Attorney, Register of Probate, Register of Deeds and Clerk of Courts are elected in every county in the Commonwealth. County Commissioner and County Treasurer survive only in a handful of counties. This page tells you exactly which of those offices exist in your county, which are on the November 3, 2026 ballot, and what is still open now that every filing deadline has passed.

This page covers that for Suffolk County and points you at your local election office for anything specific to your county. It is not legal advice; the official rules live with your election office and the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Elections Division.

Suffolk County by the numbers.

In 2024, Suffolk County cast 297,041 votes for president: 22.4% Republican, 74.8% Democratic.

The first step in any campaign is to know your voter.

The campaigns that win the field are the ones who start building their list of supporters and volunteers before qualifying even opens, not after. Motion51 is ready to load your Suffolk County voter file the moment you send it over, so you can start finding your people now.

Start free in Suffolk

Massachusetts election calendar (2026).

Massachusetts runs one statewide calendar and there is no separate county filing office, so these dates are the same in all 14 counties. Every regular door for 2026 is now shut. Nomination papers for county and district offices went to local registrars by 5 p.m. on April 28 and to the Elections Division by 5 p.m. on May 26. What is still live is the write-in and sticker route, and the most dangerous deadline in the whole Massachusetts calendar sits two days after the primary.

Tue Feb 24, 2026Deadline to enroll in or un-enroll from a party for a DISTRICT or COUNTY candidate -- CLOSED. A week earlier than the federal and statewide deadline, which catches people out.
Tue Mar 3, 2026Deadline to enroll in or un-enroll from a party for a FEDERAL or STATEWIDE candidate -- CLOSED.
Tue Apr 28, 2026, 5 p.m.Deadline for ALL county and district candidates to submit nomination papers to the local boards of registrars for signature certification -- CLOSED. This is the real gate: it falls 28 days before the filing deadline under G.L. c. 53 sec. 7.
Tue May 5, 2026, 5 p.m.The same registrar deadline for PARTY candidates for federal and statewide office -- CLOSED.
Tue May 26, 2026, 5 p.m.Deadline for all county and district candidates to file certified nomination papers and every other required document with the Elections Division, One Ashburton Place, Room 1705, Boston -- CLOSED. There is no county filing office in Massachusetts.
Tue Jun 2, 2026, 5 p.m.The same filing deadline for PARTY candidates for federal and statewide office -- CLOSED.
Tue Jul 28, 2026, 5 p.m.Deadline for NON-PARTY (independent) candidates for federal and statewide office to submit papers to registrars -- CLOSED. This is why the August 25 date below is no longer reachable.
Before Tue Sep 1, 2026THE TRAP, and it has no official date on it. File your Statement of Financial Interests with the State Ethics Commission and get the receipt NOW, before primary day. A write-in winner has to produce that receipt within two days of the primary, and the Commission is not a same-day service.
Tue Aug 25, 2026, 5 p.m.Filing deadline for non-party federal and statewide candidates. Technically still ahead, practically unreachable: the signature-certification gate behind it closed on July 28.
Tue Sep 1, 2026STATE PRIMARY. Moved here from the statutory default by Chapter 34 of the Acts of 2025, an emergency law approved September 23, 2025. Do not trust any source that says September 15 or the third Tuesday in September.
Thu Sep 3, 2026, 5 p.m.THE 48-HOUR WINDOW. A write-in candidate who wins a primary nomination must file BOTH a written acceptance AND a State Ethics Commission receipt with the state secretary by this hour. Chapter 34 of the Acts of 2025 sec. 2 overrides the ordinary c. 53 sec. 3 timetable, so this is two days, not the usual thirteen.
Thu Sep 3, 2026, 5 p.m.Deadline to petition local election officials for a recount of the September 1 primary, and 3 p.m. the same day for district-wide and statewide recounts. Chapter 34 sec. 6.
Fri Sep 4, 2026, 12 noonDeadline for objections to, and withdrawals from, nominations made at the primary. Chapter 34 sec. 3.
Tue Sep 8, 2026, 5 p.m.Deadline for a party executive committee to fill a vacancy caused by a death, withdrawal or ineligibility at the primary. Chapter 34 sec. 5.
Sat Sep 19, 2026Military and overseas ballots go out. In practice this is when the November electorate starts voting. Chapter 34 sec. 8.
Tue Nov 3, 2026STATE ELECTION. Write-in and sticker votes are counted for every office on this ballot, and a general election is decided by plurality with no minimum threshold.

Two dating traps are worth knowing. First, the 2026 state primary is Tuesday, September 1, not the date G.L. c. 53 sec. 28 would produce. Chapter 34 of the Acts of 2025 moved it as an emergency law, and older guides, calendars and printed handouts still carry the statutory default. Second, Chapter 34 also compressed the post-primary paperwork window from about thirteen days to two, so a write-in winner waiting for a letter in the post has already missed the deadline. Section 9 of that act lets the state secretary move post-primary dates for the orderly administration of the November election, so confirm anything in this table with the Elections Division on 617-727-2828 before you rely on it.

Offices on the ballot in Suffolk County.

These are the county-level offices that exist in this county and what is actually on the November 3, 2026 ballot here. Massachusetts is the state where a generic template will invite you to run for an office that was abolished in the 1990s, so read this list rather than assuming your county works like the county next door. Three county-wide offices are elected everywhere but are NOT on the 2026 ballot: Register of Deeds and Clerk of Courts, both next up in 2030, and Sheriff, next up in 2028 in every county except Franklin.

Register of Probate -- ON the November 3, 2026 ballot in Suffolk County, a 6-year term. This is the one county-wide office being elected in every single one of the 14 Massachusetts counties this year. The register runs the Probate and Family Court registry for the county: estates, wills, trusts, guardianships, adoptions, divorce and name changes. 1,000 certified signatures in Suffolk County.
District Attorney, Suffolk District -- ON the November 3, 2026 ballot, 4-year term, 1,000 signatures. The Suffolk district matches the county: Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop.
WRITE-IN OPENING -- as the Secretary of the Commonwealth's certified primary lists stood on August 14, 2026, NO Republican candidate was printed for Register of Probate in Suffolk County or for District Attorney in the Suffolk District. 1,000 Republican write-in votes on September 1 takes either nomination under G.L. c. 53 sec. 40.
NOT elected in Suffolk County -- county commissioner and county treasurer. Suffolk is the odd one out. It was never separately abolished the way Middlesex or Worcester were, because it never had a separate county commission to abolish: under G.L. c. 34 sec. 4 the powers of county commissioners in Suffolk are vested in the officials of Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop rather than in a county board. There is no Suffolk County Commissioner seat to run for.
Suffolk is the only county in Massachusetts with THREE clerks of courts rather than one, reflecting the separate civil and criminal business of its courts. None of them is on the 2026 ballot; clerks of courts are next elected in 2030.
NOT on the 2026 ballot anywhere in Massachusetts -- Register of Deeds and Clerk of Courts, both 6-year terms next up in 2030, and Sheriff, a 6-year term next up in 2028 in every county except Franklin. They are still elected offices, just not this year. If one of those is the job you want, 2026 is the year to build name recognition, not the year to file.

Statewide and legislative seats covering Suffolk County are on the same ballot:

U.S. Senator -- one of the two Massachusetts seats is on the 2026 ballot, a 6-year term, 10,000 certified signatures.
U.S. Representative -- all 9 Massachusetts districts, 2-year terms, 2,000 signatures each.
Governor and Lieutenant Governor -- 4-year terms, last elected in 2022. They run separately in the September primary and as a joint ticket in November. 10,000 signatures each.
Attorney General -- 4-year term, 10,000 signatures.
Secretary of the Commonwealth, Treasurer and Receiver General, and Auditor -- 4-year terms, 5,000 signatures each. Every statewide constitutional office is on the 2026 ballot.
Governor's Councillor -- all 8 districts, 2-year terms, 1,000 signatures. The Governor's Council confirms every judge in Massachusetts, and it is one of the most winnable offices in the state because almost nobody knows it is on the ballot.
State Senator -- all 40 seats, 2-year terms, 300 signatures. Massachusetts does not stagger its Senate.
State Representative -- all 160 seats, 2-year terms, and just 150 signatures. That is the lowest signature bar on the state ballot, and it is where a first-time candidate with a good door programme has the best chance in Massachusetts.

Three things worth carrying away. First, judges are NOT elected in Massachusetts. They are appointed by the Governor with the consent of the Governor's Council, which is why the Councillor race matters more than its profile suggests. Second, city and town offices -- mayor, select board, city council, school committee -- are not on this ballot at all. They run on their own municipal calendars through your city or town clerk, and in most communities that is the easiest first race in the state. Third, the county offices above are the ones the Secretary of the Commonwealth lists for this county in 2026; the Elections Division's own signature table is the authority and it is linked below.

How to get on the ballot.

There is no filing fee for any office on the Massachusetts state ballot. Massachusetts is a pure signature state under G.L. c. 53 sec. 44, and the number of signatures depends on the office and, for county offices, on which county you are in. Every regular route onto the November 3, 2026 ballot has now closed. What is open, and what Massachusetts has an unusually strong tradition of, is the write-in and sticker campaign.

Primary write-in -- the strongest door left, and it closes on September 1, 2026.

This is the route that actually puts your name in print on the November ballot. Win a party's primary nomination as a write-in on September 1 and you become that party's nominee, printed on the November 3 ballot. G.L. c. 53 sec. 40 sets the bar, and the wording matters: if NO candidate's name is printed on the primary ballot for that office, a write-in must receive at least as many votes as the number of signatures that would have been required to get on the ballot. If somebody's name IS printed, there is no separate threshold and you simply have to outpoll them.

Empty ballot lines are common in Massachusetts county races, and where a line is empty that signature-equivalent threshold is the whole contest. The number is 1,000 for District Attorney and for most county offices, 500 for the county offices of Barnstable, Berkshire, Franklin and Hampshire, and 25 for every office within Dukes County and Nantucket County.
The voters who can write you in are the ones taking that party's ballot. In Massachusetts an unenrolled voter may choose either party's primary ballot, which is a far larger pool than most first-time candidates assume.
FILE YOUR STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL INTERESTS WITH THE STATE ETHICS COMMISSION BEFORE PRIMARY DAY. A write-in winner has to file a written acceptance AND an Ethics Commission receipt with the state secretary by 5 p.m. on Thursday, September 3, 2026. That is two days. Chapter 34 of the Acts of 2025 sec. 2 replaced the ordinary thirteen-day window for this cycle, and anybody who starts the Ethics filing on September 2 will not make it.
Winning a primary write-in on an empty line is not a stunt. In a state where the petition deadline passed in April, it is how a serious candidate gets a printed ballot position in November.

General election write-in and sticker -- open through the close of polls on November 3, 2026.

A Massachusetts general election is decided by plurality and there is no minimum vote threshold at all. The candidate with the most votes wins, printed name or not. Stickers are lawful and Massachusetts has a real sticker-campaign tradition: G.L. c. 54 sec. 33E expressly contemplates a vote 'affixed by sticker or paster', and the same section says that a vote not placed in the blank space provided for that office 'shall not be counted'.

Placement is the whole game. The sticker, or the handwritten name, has to land in the write-in space for that specific office. A sticker over another candidate's name, or in the wrong contest, is a discarded vote.
Get the current sticker specifications from the Elections Division before you print anything. These ballots are read by scanners and a sticker that jams a scanner is a sticker that costs you votes. Print your name exactly as it appears on the voting list, and do not print a party designation.
You may not hand out stickers within 150 feet of the polling place entrance. Plan your distribution around that line, not on it.
There is no registration requirement and no fee for a general election write-in. There is also no ballot position and no free name recognition, which is exactly why this is a door-knocking strategy rather than an advertising one.

Regular nomination papers -- CLOSED for 2026, and this is the shape of the 2028 calendar.

For the record, because this is the route most people mean. Massachusetts charges no filing fee. You pick up nomination papers from the Elections Division at One Ashburton Place in Boston, from the regional offices in Fall River or Springfield, or from one of the local election offices the Secretary designates around the state. You gather signatures from registered voters, take them to the boards of registrars in the cities and towns where those voters live for certification, and then file the certified papers with the Elections Division. For 2026 those two deadlines were 5 p.m. on April 28 and 5 p.m. on May 26.

Two rules most guides leave out. G.L. c. 53 sec. 7 requires registrars to certify the required number of signatures 'increased by two fifths thereof', so gather about 140 per cent of the number you need. Collecting three times the target is wasted effort; falling 10 per cent short is fatal.
In a party primary you may take signatures only from voters enrolled in your own party or from unenrolled voters. Signatures from the other party's enrollees will not be certified. A non-party candidate running only in November may take signatures from voters of any affiliation.
Alongside the signatures you file a written acceptance of the nomination, an enrollment certification or voter registration certificate completed by your local registrars, and, for every state, county and district office, a State Ethics Commission receipt for your Statement of Financial Interests. Statewide candidates also file an OCPF receipt.
The party enrollment deadline for county and district candidates was February 24, 2026, a week before the federal and statewide deadline. Changing your enrollment after that date disqualifies you from the printed ballot, though you remain eligible as a write-in.

Non-party (independent) papers -- effectively closed for 2026.

An independent candidate for federal or statewide office has until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, August 25, 2026 to file with the Elections Division, so that date is technically still ahead. It is not reachable. The signatures on those papers had to be certified by local registrars by 5 p.m. on July 28, and G.L. c. 53 sec. 7 gives registrars that time for a reason. Nobody starting a petition drive now can qualify. For county and district office the independent track closed on the same April and May dates as the party track.

Statutory references: G.L. c. 53 sec. 9 and secs. 10 and 48 -- nomination papers for state representative, state senator, executive council and COUNTY office are filed with the STATE SECRETARY. There is no county-level filing office anywhere in Massachusetts. Local boards of registrars certify the signatures of their own residents first, then the papers go to the Elections Division, One Ashburton Place, Room 1705, Boston, MA 02108 · G.L. c. 53 sec. 44 -- District Attorney 1,000; county offices 1,000, except 500 in Barnstable, Berkshire, Franklin and Hampshire counties, and 25 for all offices within Dukes County and Nantucket County; Governor's Councillor 1,000; State Senator 300; State Representative 150 · G.L. c. 53 sec. 7 -- registrars certify the required number of signatures 'increased by two fifths thereof', and papers reach the registrars 28 days before the filing deadline, so gather about 140 per cent · G.L. c. 53 sec. 46 -- a candidate in a party primary may take signatures only from voters enrolled in that party or from unenrolled voters · there is no filing fee for any office on the Massachusetts state ballot · G.L. c. 53 sec. 40 -- where no candidate's name is printed on the primary ballot for an office, a write-in must receive at least as many votes as the number of signatures that would have been required · G.L. c. 54 sec. 33E -- a vote for a person whose name is not printed on the ballot must be written or affixed by sticker or paster in the blank space provided for that office, 'or it shall not be counted' · Chapter 34 of the Acts of 2025 -- an emergency law approved September 23, 2025 setting the 2026 state primary at Tuesday, September 1 notwithstanding G.L. c. 53 sec. 28, and requiring a write-in nominee to file a written acceptance and a State Ethics Commission receipt by 5 p.m. on Thursday, September 3, 2026 · G.L. c. 34B sec. 1 abolished the county governments of Middlesex, Hampden, Worcester, Hampshire, Essex and Berkshire between 1997 and 2000, and Franklin County government was abolished separately by St. 1996 c. 151 sec. 567; G.L. c. 34B sec. 2 provides that nothing in that chapter affects the existing county boundaries. Fees and signature counts change; confirm before you file.

The Suffolk Probate and Family Court.

Massachusetts has no county election office. Elections are run by 351 city and town clerks and boards of registrars, and candidate filings for county office go to the Secretary of the Commonwealth's Elections Division in Boston, not to anything inside your county. So there are three offices you will actually deal with, and only one of them is here. Nomination papers and filings go to the Elections Division, One Ashburton Place, Room 1705, Boston, MA 02108, 617-727-2828, [email protected], with regional offices at 218 South Main Street Suite 206 in Fall River (508-646-1374) and 436 Dwight Street Room 102 in Springfield (413-784-1376). Signature certification, voter registration and the annual street list go through YOUR OWN city or town clerk. And then there is the county-wide office below, which is the seat of the one county office on the 2026 ballot in every single Massachusetts county, the Register of Probate. We do not publish the current officeholder's name here, because people move on and the official directories are always fresher than a web page.

Suffolk Probate and Family Court

Office: 24 New Chardon St., Boston, MA 02114
Phone: (617) 788-8301

Suffolk County elections website →

Suffolk County is Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop, and it is the county where the abolition story runs differently from everywhere else. Suffolk does not appear in the G.L. c. 34B list of abolished counties for the simple reason that it never had the kind of county commission that was abolished elsewhere; G.L. c. 34 sec. 4 vests commissioner powers in the officials of its four municipalities. The practical answer is the same as in Middlesex or Worcester, though. There is no county commissioner and no county treasurer to run for. If county-level government is what interests you in Suffolk, the real bodies are the Boston City Council and the Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop councils, all of which run on municipal calendars through their own city clerks. The Elections Division itself is at One Ashburton Place, Room 1705, a few minutes' walk from the Suffolk probate registry on New Chardon Street.

Contact details verified 2026-08-14. Official statewide sources: Massachusetts SoS: How to Run for Office in 2026 (offices, signature counts, every deadline) · Massachusetts SoS: Candidate's Guide 2026, Don't Just Stand There... Run! (PDF) · Massachusetts SoS: Elected Offices and Terms (which counties elect commissioners and treasurers) · Massachusetts SoS: 2026 Democratic State Primary candidates · Massachusetts SoS: 2026 Republican State Primary candidates · Massachusetts SoS: find my local election office · State Ethics Commission: file your Statement of Financial Interests · Chapter 34 of the Acts of 2025 (the 2026 primary date and the 48-hour acceptance window) · G.L. c. 53 sec. 40 (primary write-in threshold) · G.L. c. 54 sec. 33E (stickers and pasters) · Probate and Family Court locations (every county division).

Common questions.

Can I still get on the ballot in Suffolk County in 2026?

Not by petition. Every regular route closed months ago: county and district nomination papers went to local registrars by 5 p.m. on April 28, 2026 and to the Elections Division by 5 p.m. on May 26. The independent track for federal and statewide office nominally runs to August 25, but the signature-certification gate behind it closed on July 28, so it is not reachable either. What is still open is the write-in. Win a party's primary nomination as a write-in on Tuesday, September 1, 2026 and your name is PRINTED on the November 3 ballot. Miss that and you can still run as a general election write-in or sticker candidate, where a plurality wins with no minimum threshold at all. The next regular filing window opens in the spring of 2028.

When is the 2026 Massachusetts state primary?

Tuesday, September 1, 2026. Not September 15, and not the third Tuesday in September. Chapter 34 of the Acts of 2025, an emergency law approved on September 23, 2025, moved the 2026 primary notwithstanding G.L. c. 53 sec. 28, which would otherwise have put it on the seventh Tuesday before the state election. Plenty of calendars, guides and printed handouts still carry the old date. The state election is Tuesday, November 3, 2026.

I might win a write-in on primary night. What do I have to do next?

You have until 5 p.m. on THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2026. Two days. Section 2 of Chapter 34 of the Acts of 2025 requires a person whose name was not printed on the primary ballot but who receives enough votes to be nominated to file with the state secretary BOTH a written acceptance of the nomination AND a receipt from the State Ethics Commission confirming that a Statement of Financial Interests has been filed. An ordinary year gives you about thirteen days. This one gives you two, which means the Ethics Commission filing has to be done BEFORE primary day. If you are running a serious write-in campaign in Suffolk County, file your SFI in August and keep the receipt in your pocket on September 1.

What does it cost to run for county office in Suffolk County?

Nothing in filing fees. Massachusetts is a pure signature state and charges no fee for any office on the state ballot. What it costs is signatures, and the number depends on the office and on which county you are in. G.L. c. 53 sec. 44 sets 1,000 for District Attorney and for most county offices, 500 for county offices in Barnstable, Berkshire, Franklin and Hampshire counties, and just 25 for every office within Dukes County and Nantucket County. Whatever your number is, gather about 140 per cent of it: G.L. c. 53 sec. 7 tells registrars to certify the required number 'increased by two fifths thereof'.

Where do I file to run for county office in Suffolk County?

With the SECRETARY OF THE COMMONWEALTH, not with anything in the county. There is no county filing office anywhere in Massachusetts. G.L. c. 53 sec. 9 and secs. 10 and 48 route state representative, state senator, executive council and county office to the state secretary. The process has two steps: your local boards of registrars certify the signatures of their own residents first, and then the certified papers are filed with the Elections Division at One Ashburton Place, Room 1705, Boston. Nomination papers are picked up from the same office, from the regional offices in Fall River and Springfield, or from designated local election offices.

Does Suffolk County still have a county government?

That depends on which county you are in, and it is the single most important question on this page. Five Massachusetts counties still elect county commissioners: Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Norfolk and Plymouth. Three of those, Bristol, Norfolk and Plymouth, also elect a county treasurer in 2026. Nantucket is a consolidated town and county whose Select Board serves as county commissioners ex officio, so there is no separate commissioner election there. Everywhere else the county government was abolished between 1997 and 2000 and there is no county commission, county council or county treasurer to run for. The office list above tells you which of these applies to Suffolk County. Abolished or not, the county still exists as geography and as a court district, and the county-wide offices listed above are still filled by its voters.

Can Motion51 get me the Suffolk County voter file?

No, and we will not pretend otherwise. You obtain it, we run your doors on it. The good news is that in Massachusetts the sub-statewide file is genuinely easy to get. G.L. c. 51 sec. 55 requires your city or town registrars to furnish the voting list free of charge, on request, to political committees and to candidates for public office in that district. There is no use restriction, no resale ban and no commercial-use ban on a municipal list; Massachusetts even sells the annual street list to business organizations under sec. 6. The statewide central registry under sec. 47C is the restricted one, and it only matters if you are running statewide. Expect names, addresses, party enrollment and voting history, and expect no phone numbers and no e-mail addresses in either list.

After you qualify: the field operation.

Three things about Massachusetts change how a county campaign is run. First, the county is not the organising unit; the city or town is. Ballots are printed by municipality, signatures are certified by municipal registrars, results are reported by municipality and precinct, and the voter list you can actually obtain is a municipal list. Cut turf by town and every piece of paperwork lines up behind it. Second, the file you will be working from has no telephone numbers and no e-mail addresses. Massachusetts voting lists carry names, addresses, party enrollment and voting history, which is everything you need to build walk lists, score propensity off past participation and stop two volunteers knocking the same door, and nothing you need for a phone bank. Massachusetts is a door and mail state by law. Third, a county-wide race here can be enormous. Middlesex County cast more than 800,000 votes in 2024 and is bigger than nine states; Nantucket cast about 7,000. Work out which of those campaigns you are running before you write a plan, because the same strategy cannot be right for both.

That is the part Motion51 was built for. You scope your district, cut turf, and send volunteers out with a phone instead of a clipboard. It works offline, so canvassing does not stop where the cell signal does, and every door is logged with a timestamp for your records. Our For Candidates page walks through what that looks like.

Counties next to Suffolk.

Running in a district that crosses a county line? Each of these has its own guide.

Norfolk County Middlesex County Essex County

See all Massachusetts counties →

Running for office in Suffolk County, Massachusetts.