How Ballots are Counted

For most elections in Massachusetts, you can cast a ballot in person on Election Day, in person before Election Day, or by mail. We use paper ballots for all elections. This allows election officials to double-check results during recounts and post-election audits.

With multiple voting methods, election officials use various counting methods. Mail ballots, for example, may follow a different process than in-person ballots. Knowing how and when each ballot is counted can help address voting concerns. Read below to learn how and when ballots are counted in Massachusetts elections.

How are ballots counted?

After an election, tabulators print paper receipts of vote totals. Poll workers add those totals to a paper tally sheet, along with any hand-counted votes, to create a total tally for each precinct.

Some smaller towns only count votes by hand after the polls close.

Early & Absentee Ballots

Ballots cast before Election Day are sealed in envelopes until they’re ready to be counted. This includes absentee ballots, early “Vote by Mail” ballots, and in-person early voting ballots.

If you voted early or absentee, election workers will open and count your ballot at either:

• Your polling place on Election Day, or
• A central tabulation facility run by your local election official

Early and absentee ballot tabulation occurs in public, and anyone can observe the process.

When processing absentee and early ballots, election officials will:

1. Read aloud the names and addresses on the ballot envelopes
2. Cross the names off the voting list, indicating the ballots were counted
3. Open the ballot envelopes
4. Remove ballots from envelopes in batches, shuffle them to preserve ballot secrecy, and unfold them
5. Insert the ballots into the ballot box

If the tabulator can’t read your early or absentee ballot, election officials will place it in a locked compartment to hand-count after polls close.

When are ballots counted?

Before Election Day

Local election officials may choose to start tabulating early and absentee ballots before Election Day. They can start as early as nine days before Election Day, after voter registration for the election closes.

Even if they begin tabulating before Election Day, however, they can’t retrieve or release any vote totals until polls close on Election Day.

If you return your ballot before Election Day, it can be tabulated at a public “advance processing” session. In these sessions, election officials can remove ballots from envelopes and insert them into tabulators.

Local election officials may choose to process returned early and absentee ballots until the day before Election Day.

On Election Day

If you vote in person on Election Day, your ballot will be counted on Election Day.

Poll workers will also count any non-tabulated absentee or early ballots on Election Day.

For primary, special, and local elections, if your ballot arrives on Election Day (by mail or drop box), it must be counted on Election Day.

For biennial state elections, if your ballot arrives on Election Day, it will be either be counted:

• At your polling place on Election Day, if there’s enough time before the polls close, or
• During post-election tabulation (see below)

Biennial state elections are regular federal elections held in November, also called presidential and midterm elections.

After Election Day

For biennial state elections, mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day will be counted if they arrive by the third day after Election Day.

For all other types of elections, a mail-in ballot must arrive before the polls are closed, and can’t be counted after Election Day.

If your biennial state election ballot arrives in the three-day period after Election Day, it will be counted at a public post-election counting session. Like advance processing sessions, observers may attend.

Local election officials will post the date, time, and location of the tabulation session. It will occur no earlier than the fourth day after Election Day.

Provisional ballots and ballots cast by military or overseas voters may also be counted after Election Day:

• Provisional ballots are counted in the clerk’s office, if the clerk determines the voter was eligible to cast the ballot.
• Certain military and overseas ballots are counted at a meeting of the Board of Registrars.

If you have any questions about ballot counting processes, contact our office or your local election office.