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H860 • 2025

An Act relative to early voting and vote by mail

An Act relative to early voting and vote by mail

Elections
Active

The official status still shows this bill as active or still awaiting another formal step.

Sponsor
Alice Hanlon Peisch
Last action
2025-09-02
Official status
Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means
Effective date
Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

Using official source text because the generated explanation was unavailable or could not be confirmed against the official bill text.

An Act relative to early voting and vote by mail

An Act relative to early voting and vote by mail By Representative Peisch of Wellesley, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No.

What This Bill Does

  • An Act relative to early voting and vote by mail By Representative Peisch of Wellesley, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No.
  • 860) of Alice Hanlon Peisch relative to early voting and vote by mail.
  • Election Laws.
  • Status: Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means

Limits and Unknowns

  • This entry is temporarily using official source text because the generated explanation could not be confirmed against the official bill text during the last sync.

Bill History

  1. 2025-09-02 House

    Bill reported favorably by committee and referred to the committee on House Ways and Means

  2. 2025-06-10 Joint

    Hearing scheduled for 06/17/2025 from 01:00 PM-05:00 PM in B-1

  3. 2025-02-27 House

    Referred to the committee on Election Laws

  4. 2025-02-27 Senate

    Senate concurred

Official Summary Text

An Act relative to early voting and vote by mail
By Representative Peisch of Wellesley, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 860) of Alice Hanlon Peisch relative to early voting and vote by mail. Election Laws.
Status:
Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text 
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Bill H.860

SECTION 1. Section 25B of chapter 54 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2022 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the word “election.”, in line 34, the following words:-The Secretary of the Commonwealth shall develop a mechanism for voters to opt out of vote by mail mailers.

SECTION 2. Said section 25B of said chapter 54, as so appearing, is hereby further amended by inserting after the word “paragraph”, in line 257, the following words:-

If twenty-five percent or more of the votes cast in the prior state election in any municipality were by mail, pursuant to this section the mayor of a city or board of selectmen or select board of a town may opt to reduce or eliminate early voting as authorized by this section . If twenty-five percent or more of the votes cast in the prior state election in a municipality were by mail pursuant to this section , the mayor of a city or board of selectmen or select board of a town may opt to reduce or eliminate early voting pursuant to this section.

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