Massachusetts Statutes § 54:91 Applications; filing and certification; notation on voting lists; posting

When an application for an official absent voting ballot is received by the clerk of a city or town, it shall be transmitted by him to the registrars, who shall examine it and, if they believe the signature thereon to be genuine and the person executing the signature to be a duly registered voter or a family member of a duly registered voter, shall execute the certificate thereon and return the application to said clerk. Notwithstanding the provisions of the first sentence, if an application for an official absent voting ballot is received by the registrar, assistant registrar, or clerk of a city or town, from the voter who will be absent from said city or town on the date of the election and who requests to make application for an absent voting ballot and to vote in the presence of the registrar, assistant registrar, or clerk during the same visit, said registrar, assistant registrar, or clerk shall examine said application, and if he believes the signature thereon to be genuine and the person executing the signature to be a duly registered voter, shall execute the certification thereon and remain present while the voter marks the ballot as set forth in paragraph two of section ninety-two. The clerk shall cause to be placed on the voting lists prepared as required by section sixty of chapter fifty-one, opposite the name of each voter on whose application such certificate has been so executed, the letters in capitals A. V. If the registrars find the person signing the application not to be a duly registered voter, they shall send him written notice to that effect and shall preserve the application during the time fixed by law for the preservation of ballots cast in the coming election, after which time said application shall be destroyed. The clerk shall prepare lists, arranged by voting precincts, of the names and addresses of all voters on whose applications for absent voting ballots the certificate has been executed as provided in this section, and shall post copies of such lists for public inspection. An applicant for an absent voting ballot who has been furnished a certificate of supplementary registration, as authorized by section fifty-one of chapter fifty-one, shall submit such certificate with his application, and the clerk shall cause to be placed on such certificate opposite the name of the applicant the letters in capitals A. V. Every such certificate shall be securely affixed to the voting lists required by section sixty of chapter fifty-one to be transmitted to the polling place for the precinct where such applicant claims the right to vote and shall be considered a part thereof.

Sections fifty-nine and fifty-nine A of chapter fifty-one shall apply to applications for absent voting ballots, but the certificate mentioned in section fifty-nine shall be issued by the city or town clerk.