Section 3: Organization
444 words·~2 min read·
/ma/part-i/title-vii/chapter-43a/3A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Section 3. Upon the adoption as aforesaid of such standard form of representative town meeting government by a town, its selectmen shall forthwith divide the territory thereof into voting precincts, each of which shall be plainly designated and shall contain not less than four hundred registered voters. The precincts shall be so established as to consist of compact and contiguous territory to be bounded, as far as possible, by the center line of known streets and ways or by other well-defined limits.
Their boundaries shall be reviewed, and, if need be, wholly or partly revised, by the selectmen in December, once in five years, or in December of any year when so directed by a vote of a representative town meeting held not later than November twentieth of that year. The foregoing provisions of this section shall not authorize any action contrary to the provisions of section nine A of chapter fifty-four.
The selectmen shall, within ten days after any establishment or revision of the precincts, file a report of their doings with the town clerk, the registrars of voters and the assessors, with a map or maps or description of the precincts and the names and residences of the registered voters therein. The selectmen shall also cause to be posted in the town hall a map or maps or description of the precincts as established or revised from time to time, with the names and residences of the registered voters therein; and they shall also cause to be posted in at least one public place in each precinct a map or description of that precinct, with the names and residences of the registered voters therein.
The division of the town into voting precincts and any revision of such precincts shall take effect upon the date of the filing of the report thereof by the selectmen with the town clerk. Whenever the precincts are established or revised, the town clerk shall forthwith give written notice thereof to the state secretary, stating the number and designation of the precincts. Meetings of the registered voters of the several precincts for elections, for primaries, and for voting upon any question to be submitted to all the registered voters of the town, shall be held on the same day and at the same hour and at such place or places within the town as the selectmen shall in the warrant for such meeting direct.
The provisions of chapters fifty to fifty-six, inclusive, relating to precinct voting at elections, so far as the same are not inconsistent with this chapter, shall apply to all elections and primaries in the town upon the establishment of voting precincts as hereinbefore provided.