The number of voters applying for a mail ballot for the March 31 town election is down dramatically from last year’s town election. As of Tuesday, only 301 voters had applied for a mail ballot. For the 2024 town election, 3,628 voters applied for and were sent mail ballots. In that election, 1,685 people voted by mail, nearly half of the 3,390 total votes cast.
The low number of applications is likely because voters do not realize they must apply for a mail ballot for this year’s town election; it will not automatically be sent to them.
In even-numbered state election years like the 2024 Presidential election year, the Secretary of State sends a postcard mail ballot application to all voters. That postcard includes the option to request mail ballots for all elections in the calendar year, and the Town Clerk’s office reported that most voters opting for mail ballots request them for all elections. In odd-numbered years, with only municipal elections scheduled, the state does not send that mail ballot application postcard.
The 2024 request for mail ballots for all elections expired Dec. 31, 2024; state law makes such requests good for only one calendar year.
Voters will not receive a mail ballot for the March 31 town election unless they apply for one now. The deadline for that application to be received in the Town Clerk’s office is Monday, March 24 at 5 p.m.
Registered voters can apply online, using a downloadable form, or by requesting a paper form at the Town Clerk's office in Town Hall, 322 Concord Rd. Forms can be returned to the Town Clerk by mail, in person, or they can be scanned and sent by email to votebymail@sudbury.ma.us or faxed to the Town Clerk's office, 978-639-3340. This close to the deadline, applying online is the surest way to submit an application on time.
Once voters have requested a mail ballot, they can track the progress of that request here.
Voters who receive a mail ballot only a few days before the election should consider returning it to the ballot drop box available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, behind Town Hall to avoid U. S. postal service delays. Mail ballots must be received by the Town Clerk by 8 p.m. Monday, March 31; depositing ballots in the drop box by that time meets that deadline. Mail ballots cannot be returned to the polling place on Election Day.
Voters who have not yet applied for a mail ballot, or who apply now but do not receive a ballot in time, can vote in person on Election Day, Monday, March 31, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. All precincts in Sudbury now vote at the Fairbank Community Center, 40 Fairbank Rd.
Since no-excuse mail voting was adopted in Massachusetts in 2022, mail ballots have become a significant percentage of the votes cast in elections.
In the 2024 Annual Town Election, 3,390 people voted with 1,658, just under half, voting by mail. In the November 2024 Presidential election, 11,943 people voted; 5,444 or 45.6% voted by mail, by far the most popular way to vote, and 3,972 or 33.3% voted in person on Election Day.
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