Town Edition
Plymouth County
Halifax, Massachusetts
Photo: T.S. Custadio ToddC4176 15:17, 11 March 2007 (UTC), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
In one May 2026 election, Halifax voters turned down a Proposition 2 1/2 override, and then turned down three separate proposals to stop electing the town clerk, the treasurer-collector, and the highway superintendent. Read those two decisions together and you learn what this town actually wants: tight control of the money, and nobody taking away its ballot. On May 16, 2026, about one in four registered voters filled every one of those seats and settled the override for everyone else, which tells you what a single Halifax ballot is worth. This guide shows you how to get into the room.
Halifax at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, district profile · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Halifax.
- County: Plymouth. Halifax sits between the Monponsett Ponds and the Winnetuxet River, about 40 minutes south of Boston, on roughly 17 square miles of mostly residential land and old cranberry country.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Board of Selectmen and an appointed Town Administrator who runs the town day to day.
- Schools: Halifax runs its own K through 6 district, about 530 students at Halifax Elementary School, and joins Kingston and Plympton in the Silver Lake Regional district for grades 7 through 12. Jill Proulx is the superintendent of both.
How Halifax’s Government Works
Halifax runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Halifax is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a three-member Board of Selectmen to set policy between meetings and a School Committee that oversees the schools. The Board of Selectmen hires a professional Town Administrator to run the town day to day. So the money is voted by whoever shows up, the direction is set by the Board of Selectmen, and the daily work is carried out by the Town Administrator.
Town Meeting
The legislative body, and it is not a committee. Every registered voter in Halifax is a member. Town Meeting adopts the annual budget, passes town bylaws, and approves major spending. This is direct democracy in its literal sense.
Board of Selectmen
3 members elected town-wide. They set policy, sign the warrants that decide what reaches Town Meeting, appoint residents to many town boards, and hire and supervise the Town Administrator.
Town Administrator
The appointed chief administrator. Runs the departments, builds the budget, and answers to the Board of Selectmen. Hired under contract, not elected.
School Committee
The Halifax Elementary School Committee has 5 members elected town-wide. Voters also elect three of the nine seats on the Silver Lake Regional School Committee for grades 7 through 12.
- Residents elect the 3 members of the Board of Selectmen and the members of the School Committee.
- The Board of Selectmen hires the Town Administrator and decides what goes on the Town Meeting warrant.
- Town Meeting votes the budget and the bylaws, and every registered voter present can vote.
- You take part: pre-register at 16. A pre-registrant is on the list but is not allowed to vote yet. Once you turn 18 that designation comes off on its own and you are a registered voter in Halifax, which makes you a member of Town Meeting with a vote on the floor. If you never pre-registered, register with the Town Clerk, and do it well ahead: the rolls close at 5 p.m. on the tenth day before any election or Town Meeting.
Civic Calendar
- Board of Selectmen: meets most Tuesday evenings at Halifax Town Hall, 499 Plymouth Street. Each agenda is posted in advance, so check the town calendar before you go.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held each spring at Halifax Elementary School, and the town can call a Special Town Meeting when business cannot wait.
- Town elections: Halifax votes in May. At the May 16, 2026 annual town election, 1,587 ballots were cast, about a quarter of the town’s registered voters. The next is in spring 2027.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The 2026 primary and general are this fall.
Explore the Halifax Edition
- Town Administrator’s OfficeThe town’s chief administrator
- Board of SelectmenYour three board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & committees
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Halifax HistoryMonponsett, mills, and 1734
- DemographicsWho lives in Halifax
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataHalifax schools by the numbers
Your County Officials
Two of the people with the most direct power over your life are elected, and neither one sits on Beacon Hill. The district attorney decides who gets charged with a crime, and what they get charged with. The sheriff runs the county jail. The sheriff is elected by the voters of Plymouth County. The district attorney is elected by the voters of a prosecution district, and Massachusetts draws eleven of those across its fourteen counties, so a district attorney’s territory does not always follow a county line. Both appear on your ballot in Halifax. Now you know what to look for.
Massachusetts elects fourteen sheriffs, one for each county, and eleven district attorneys, one for each prosecution district. The job is the same everywhere: the charging decisions, the jail. Look up any town in the state and see who holds these two offices there.
Your First Civic Action in Halifax
You do not have to wait until you can vote to be heard in your own town. Here is how to take a real concern to the people who decide.
- Pick the right body. Town policy, roads, and police or fire go to the Board of Selectmen. Schools go to the School Committee. The budget and bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Board of Selectmen meets most Tuesday evenings at Halifax Town Hall, 499 Plymouth Street, and the agenda is posted in advance.
- Know your members. All three Board of Selectmen members are elected town-wide, so every one of them answers to you.
- Speak. Meetings are open to the public and residents may address the board. Check the agenda for how to sign up.
- Or skip the trip. Report a pothole, a fallen limb, or a plowing problem to the Highway & Cemetery Department, which owns the repair.
- Town Hall: 499 Plymouth Street, Halifax, MA 02338. Board of Selectmen office 781-294-1316.
- Town Clerk & agendas: 781-293-7970, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at halifaxma.gov.
- Public schools: Halifax Elementary School Committee for K through 6, and the Silver Lake Regional district for grades 7 through 12, at slrsd.org.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Board of Selectmen, speak at a meeting on the town’s published calendar, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.