BOSTON (SHNS) – The House moved Tuesday to pencil next year’s statewide primary election day in for Tuesday, Sept. 1, nine weeks before November’s general election.
Gov. Maura Healey proposed that date for the primary last month when she filed a $2.45 billion supplemental fiscal year 2025 budget. The House Ways and Means Committee polled its members Tuesday morning on a tiny piece of that bill, just four pages that deal with setting the primary date and associated deadlines.
State law calls for primary elections to be held seven weeks before the November general unless that date conflicts with a religious holiday. Under that statutory timeline, next year’s primary would land on Sept. 15. In 2026, Labor Day falls on Monday, Sept. 7.
But since a federal law that requires ballots be ready for military and overseas voters 45 days before Election Day took effect in 2010, Massachusetts lawmakers have routinely moved up the primary date.
If both branches of the Legislature and Healey agree on the Sept. 1, 2026, date — the House and Senate both have formal sessions planned this week — Massachusetts would still have one of the latest statewide primaries in the country next year.
The National Conference of State Legislatures said the earliest state primaries for 2026 are slated for March 3 (Arkansas, North Carolina and Texas), with Massachusetts and Delaware currently penciled in for the latest primaries, on Sept. 15. By moving to Sept. 1, Massachusetts would jump ahead of Delaware, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. June is the busiest month for state primaries, NCSL said, with 16 planned.
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Colin A. Young
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