We encourage all candidates for all elected offices, for both town-wide and Town Meeting, to investigate the responsibilities of the post by reading the Town General By-Laws and Belmont Town Meeting Acts of 1926, and reading the minutes of the elected board.
Campaign Finance Filings and Requirements - The Eight-Day Prior to Election Reports Are Due to the Town Clerk March 25th, 2013
All candidates for Town-wide elected office, as well as all those currently serving, must file campaign finance forms with the Town Clerk's office, please check the requirements at the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance website [Link] http://www.mass.gov/ocpf/
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Candidates for Town Meeting Member
The elected term for Town Meeting Member is three (3) years, though should a resignation occur, there may be openings for one (1), or two (2) year periods.
Candidate for Re-Election as Town Meeting Member
If you are an incumbent Town Meeting Member, in late December/early January of the year your term is due to expire in April, you will receive from the Town Clerk’s office a letter asking if you’d like to be considered a candidate for re-election to Town Meeting for your precinct.
The candidate must sign and return the affirmation form to the Town Clerk’s office by the designated date at 5 p.m. (was January 22, 2013) to be considered a candidate for re-election. If the date passes without return of the form, the candidate would be considered a new candidate for Town Meeting and would be required to secure the 25 signatures on the nomination paper and the words “candidate for re-election” will not appear next to the name on the ballot.
New Candidates for Town Meeting Member
To be considered a new candidate for Town Meeting Member, you must be at least 18 years old and a registered voter of the Town of Belmont in the precinct you wish to represent. If you are currently serviing as a Town Meeting Member who was elected at caucus, not by Town ballot, you will need to submit nomination papers as a new candidate.
Candidates for Town Meeting must secure the signatures of at least 25 registered voters from the precinct and return the signed nomination papers by the designated date at 5:00 p.m. (February 12, 2013) . We recommend that more signatures are collected and submitted in the event that some signatures are invalid.
Nomination papers are available in mid-December for pick-up at the Town Clerk’s office for the annual April Town election, when Town Meeting members are elected. Before collecting signatures, the candidate must sign the nomination papers and fill in the office for which he/she will be a candidate.
Candidates for Town – Wide Office:
To be considered a candidate for Town-Wide Office, you must be at least 18 years old and a registered voter of the Town of Belmont.
All candidates for Town-Wide Office must secure the signatures of at least 50 registered voters of the Town of Belmont and return the signed nomination papers by the designated date at 5 p.m. (February 12, 2012) We recommend that more signatures are collected and submitted in the event that some signatures are invalid.
Nomination papers are available in mid-December for pick-up at the Town Clerk’s office for the annual April Town election, when town-wide officers are elected. Before collecting signatures, the candidate must sign the nomination papers and fill in the office for which he/she will be a candidate.
Running for Elected Office as a Write-In Candidate
If you didn't file nomination papers in time, there's always the opportunity to run a write-in or sticker campaign. Here are the guidelines from the Secretary of State's office, noting that Belmont uses optical scanner technology as our voting machines.
If running any kind of write-in campaign, it's very important to tell your supporters to fill in the oval next to the "write-in" line under the correct office to make sure the optical scanner reads the vote first. At the end of the voting hours, the election workers review every ballot to attribute the write-ins and stickers voted without the ovals but it's best to have the ballot recognized by the voting machine as well.
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