🗳️Updated 8/21/2020 🗳️
In person early voting starts tomorrow, August 22, in Massachusetts! Ballots can be delivered to a municipal drop box, your local election office, or any early voting site in your community.
Click here for a listing by city and town with election office addresses and drop box locations!

Voting By Mail
Everyone in Massachusetts should have already received their Official 2020 Vote by Mail Application, so that you can receive your ballot by mail. That completed application must be received by your local election office by August 26th. If you want to vote by mail, send the application back as soon as possible if you haven’t already. According to city of Quincy website, if you haven’t received an application, you can download it from their website. The application can be printed and mailed back to them or you can scan it and email it to them.
I mailed my completed application to vote by mail for the primary and the general election, but haven’t received my ballot(s) yet. The state primary is coming up quickly and there have been many recent issues with the U.S. Postal Service, so I’m a bit concerned about returning my ballot by mail.
Early Voting Starts This Week
However, we do have early voting in Massachusetts, so hopefully I’ll receive my primary ballot soon.
Early voting by mail begins as soon as the ballots are ready. Early voting in-person for the state primary begins this Saturday, August 22nd and lasts until next Friday, August 28th. Early voting in-person for the state election will be from Saturday, October 17th until Friday, October 30th. The city of Quincy website has some voting tips to know before you go and has a general voter guide with a lot of good information, like the locations for early voting.
You can also track your ballot online to see if and when received. When I look up my ballot, I can see for the presidential primary in March that it was mailed and received on February 28th. I did in-person early voting. The ballot status says accepted. For the state primary, it shows that the ballot was mailed on August 13th and was not returned. As mentioned before, I have not received my ballot yet. Instead of sending it by mail, I may return it in person.
Candidates On The Ballot
Like me, you’ve probably received a lot of mail recently from the candidates. It gets overwhelming. I’m not familiar with many of them, so I want to research and compare. There’s still time to not only compare information on their websites, but to do some additional research on the candidates as well.
I’m in a few Quincy Facebook groups. From comments that I’ve seen, many people seem to feel the same way and want a place where the candidates are listed together for easy research and comparison.
Online you can look at sample ballots for Quincy to see who is on the ballot for the September 1, 2020, state primary election. The City of Quincy website lists the ballots by political party, ward and precinct. The individual sample ballots open by downloading. You can see a list of the primary candidates for the entire state, divided by party, on the website for the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
A lack of organized listings spurs me to action. Needing a list is why I created Free Yoga Boston. So I’ve decided to do something similar here and list the candidates on the ballot, with links to their websites to easily read more about them. Also, I’ve linked to the website for the current office in question.
Since I’m not reading each sample ballot, I’ve looked at the one for where I vote and for my political party. Only the contested races, those offices with more than one candidate running, are listed. The current office/description is listed next to the name instead of below, as it appears on the sample ballot.
This information will help me become more informed. Hopefully it will help you too. Feel free to share this post and let me know what you think in the comments!
2020 State Primary Candidates – Democratic Candidates For Nomination
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Senator in Congress (Vote For One)
EDWARD J. MARKEY, 7 Townsend St., Malden – United States Senator
JOSEPH P. KENNEDY, III, 106 Waban Hill Rd., Newton – Representative in Congress
Representative In Congress – Eighth District (Vote For One)
STEPHEN F. LYNCH, 55 G St., Boston – Candidate for Re-nomination
ROBBIE H. GOLDSTEIN, 346 Congress St., Boston
Register Of Probate – Norfolk County (Vote For One)
COLLEEN MARIE BRIERLEY, 125 Bond St., Norwood
NOEL T. DiBONA, 70 Chickatabot Rd., Quincy – Current Quincy City Councillor at-Large
KATHRYN E. HUBLEY, 44 Marion St., Quincy – Current Quincy City School Committee Member
COURTNEY M. MADDEN, 124 Davis St., Quincy
MICHAEL F. WALSH, 47 Phillips Brooks Rd., Westwood – Current Westwood Selectman
County Commissioner – Norfolk County (Vote For No More Than Two)
JOSEPH P. SHEA, 6 Heritage Rd., Quincy – Candidate for Re-nomination; Former Quincy City Clerk
DENNIS J. GUILFOYLE, 47 Greensboro Rd., Dedham
CHARLES B. RYAN, 24 Conrad St., Braintree – Braintree Town Councillor at-Large
RICHARD R. STAITI, 9 Burns Ave., Canton – Town Moderator; Member, Advisory Board on County Expenditures
County Treasurer – Norfolk County (Vote For One)
MICHAEL G. BELLOTTI, 33 Bayberry Rd., Quincy – Former Norfolk County Sheriff
BRAD L. CROALL, 92 Viden Rd., Quincy
Sheriff – Norfolk County (To Fill Vacancy) (Vote For One)
JAMES F. COUGHLIN, 36 Netta Rd., Dedham
PATRICK W. McDERMOTT, 55 Dixwell Ave., Quincy – Current Norfolk County Register of Probate
WILLIAM J. PHELAN, 86 Monroe Rd., Quincy – Former Quincy Mayor, Quincy School Committee Member
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*Updated 8/29/2020* Here’s a link to some interviews by the Quincy Democratic City Committee with Quincy candidates.