Get Involved

Run for Office

In Massachusetts the distance between you and a seat on your town’s school committee can be as short as twenty signatures. Not twenty thousand dollars, and not a filing fee, because this state does not charge one. Twenty neighbors, willing to sign a paper you carry to their door. Here is how the ballot actually works, who hands you the papers, and what the deadlines really are.

Steps to Running for Office

Every candidate in Massachusetts walks the same road. You qualify, you collect signatures, you file paperwork, and then you go talk to people. What changes from race to race is who hands you the papers and how many names you need. The steps below describe a state office. If the seat you want is in your own city or town, read the next section too, because your clerk runs that process and the numbers are much smaller.

Check the requirements. To put your name on the state ballot you must be a registered voter in Massachusetts, which means a U.S. citizen and at least 18 years old by the filing deadline. Individual offices add their own rules. A candidate for State Representative must live in the district for one year before Election Day. A candidate for State Senator must live in the district on Election Day and in Massachusetts for five years. The U.S. Constitution sets the bar at 25 for the U.S. House and 30 for the U.S. Senate.
Get your nomination papers. For a state, district, or county office you pick up official papers from the Elections Division of the Secretary of the Commonwealth or a regional office, and you cannot get them electronically. In 2026 those papers were available no later than February 10. For a city or town office you get your papers from your local clerk instead.
Collect certified signatures. Signatures must come from registered voters in the district, and your local registrars check every one against the voter rolls. The number depends on the office: 150 for State Representative, 300 for State Senator, 1,000 for Governor’s Council or District Attorney, and 10,000 for Governor or U.S. Senator. Collect well past the minimum. State law has the registrars certify the required number increased by two fifths, so plan on gathering about 40 percent more than you need. There are no filing fees to qualify for the ballot in Massachusetts.
Register your campaign. Candidates for state, county, and district office file with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance. Most municipal candidates file locally instead, starting with an M101 form filed with the local election official. The exceptions are every mayoral candidate and city council candidates in the seventeen largest cities, who file with OCPF directly.
File the ethics paperwork, if it applies to you. Candidates for state and county office must file a Statement of Financial Interests with the State Ethics Commission and obtain an Ethics Receipt before their nomination papers are accepted. Municipal candidates do not file one, and candidates for Congress file under federal rules instead.
Decide what you actually want to change. Pick two or three things you can describe in a sentence each. On a school committee or a select board, the specific beats the sweeping every time.
Go meet voters where they are. Knock on doors, show up at the transfer station on a Saturday, stand outside the high school game. In a local race the candidate who has had the most conversations usually knows the most.
Raise what you need. In Massachusetts an individual may give a candidate up to $1,000 per calendar year, and a registered lobbyist may give only $200, so local campaigns are built from many small checks rather than a few large ones.
Get out the vote. Make sure the people who told you yes actually cast a ballot, early, by mail, or on Election Day.

Running in Your Own City or Town

This is the part most guides skip, and it is the part that matters if you are seventeen and reading this in Massachusetts. Local ballot access does not run through the State House. It runs through your city or town clerk, and the thresholds are a fraction of what a state race demands.

Your clerk is the gatekeeper: Nomination papers for a municipal office come from the city or town clerk or the local election department, not from the Secretary of the Commonwealth. The clerk can also tell you exactly which seats are on the next ballot and how many are uncontested.
For a town office, think 20 to 50 signatures: Under state law (M.G.L. c. 53, Section 6) the default is one percent of the vote cast for governor in that district, but the law sets a floor of 20 voters for a town office and provides that no more than 50 signatures shall be required. A town charter can set its own rules, which is one more reason to ask.
City thresholds are set by charter and vary a lot: In Boston in 2025, a candidate for District City Councillor needed 200 certified signatures, a candidate for Councillor At-Large needed 1,500, and a candidate for Mayor needed 3,000. Three very different numbers in one city, which is why the only reliable answer is your own clerk’s.
The filing deadline is tied to your election, not to the state calendar: State law sets municipal filing at the 35th day before the city or town election, so the date moves with your local election day.
Money still gets reported: Most municipal candidates file an M101 with the local election official, open a separate campaign bank account, and then report activity on the M102, usually two or three times in an election year.

OCPF: Getting Started as a Candidate Find Your City or Town Website

Why Run for Office?

Local offices decide the things you actually touch: School committees, city councils, and select boards vote on school budgets, start times, athletic fields, zoning, road repair, and whether the library stays open on Sundays. These are not abstractions. They are your week.
There are thousands of seats: Massachusetts has 351 cities and towns, and each one elects a board or committee of its own. Many local seats draw only one candidate, so a first-time candidate who does the work is running a real race, not a symbolic one.
The paperwork is genuinely small: A town office can take as few as 20 certified signatures, and Massachusetts charges no filing fee for ballot access. The barrier to entry is time and nerve, not money.
The bar is registration, not age: For most offices the requirement is that you be a registered voter, which means turning 18 by the filing deadline. Your city or town charter may add a residency requirement, so ask your clerk what applies to the seat you want.

Campaign Strategies for Success

Find your win number first: Pull the certified results from your clerk for the last two cycles of the same race. The number of votes that won it last time is the target you are actually chasing, and in a local election it is often smaller than a graduating class.
Over-collect your signatures: Registrars strike names for unregistered signers, wrong addresses, and illegible handwriting. State law already assumes this and has them certify 40 percent above the requirement, so treat that as your real goal, not your cushion.
Build a small team early: Someone to keep the voter list, someone to handle the money and the filings, and a few people who will knock doors with you. Track every supporter from the first conversation.
Prioritize the doorstep: Direct conversation moves more votes in a municipal race than anything else available to you, and it costs nothing but Saturdays.
Use social media as a schedule, not a soapbox: Post where you will be and what you are voting on. It turns followers into people who show up.

Key Dates for 2026

These are the deadlines for STATE offices in 2026, published by the Secretary of the Commonwealth. Municipal deadlines are separate and set locally, so confirm those with your clerk. The Secretary’s own guide notes that these dates can change if the Legislature passes a law moving them.

February 10, 2026: Nomination papers available from the Elections Division.
April 28, 2026 at 5 p.m.: District and county candidates file papers with local election officials for certification.
May 5, 2026 at 5 p.m.: Party candidates for federal and statewide office file papers with local election officials.
May 26, 2026 at 5 p.m.: District and county candidates file certified papers with the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
June 2, 2026 at 5 p.m.: Party candidates for federal and statewide office file with the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
July 28 and August 25, 2026: The parallel deadlines for non-party candidates, first with local election officials, then with the Secretary.
Tuesday, September 1, 2026: State Primary.
Tuesday, November 3, 2026: State Election.

Every Link on This Page

Everything linked above, gathered in one place. Every source here is official except the last one, which is noted.

Get on the ballot

How to Run for Office. The Secretary of the Commonwealth’s official guide for the 2026 cycle.
2026 Candidates Guide (PDF). Signature counts, eligibility, and residency rules, office by office.
Upcoming Elections. Every state filing deadline, the primary, and the election date.
Your City or Town Website. All 351 municipalities. Your clerk runs the local ballot.

Handle the money

Campaign Finance Rules. The Office of Campaign and Political Finance, which regulates it.
Getting Started as a Candidate. OCPF’s step by step, sorted by the office you are seeking.
Municipal Filing Forms. The M101 and M102 that most local candidates file with the clerk.
Contribution Limits. What one person may legally give you in a calendar year.
Search Campaign Filings. Every reported contribution and expenditure, searchable.
Statement of Financial Interests. Filed with the State Ethics Commission by state and county candidates.

Learn the job first

Local Government 101. The Massachusetts Municipal Association on how cities and towns run.
Run for Office. A national lookup of seats near you. Confirm the rules with your clerk.

Start with the official candidate guide, then call your city or town clerk and ask what is on the next local ballot.

How to Become a Candidate