READING – Town Clerk Laura Gemme over the weekend revealed that her office will soon be sending mail-in primary ballots to voters who requested them. Meanwhile, local citizens interested in casting early votes in advance of the official Sept. 1 primary election can start doing so starting this coming Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeptember 1 primary ballots are here and in the process of being sent to those that requested one,\u201d Gemme noted in a social media message on Sunday, when she also appraised town residents that primary ballots will be color-coded to differentiate political party affiliations and the type of ballot being cast.<\/p>\n
Voters during the upcoming primaries will select the final slate of candidates who will face off during state elections on Nov. 3.<\/p>\n
Reading residents on Sept. 1 will have the opportunity to pick their Democratic or Republican Party candidates of choice to advance to the final state election. Notably, voters who have registered their party affiliations are limited to casting ballots involving their respective Democratic or Republican Party tickets, but independent or unenrolled voters can select either ballot.<\/p>\n
Besides filling various state and federal offices, voters during the general election in November will also decide a record-high number of ballot questions (nine such referendums are to be featured).<\/p>\n
The Sept. 1 Democratic Party primary will feature several contested races, including:<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0A US Senate seat contest between incumbent Edward Markey and Congressman Seth Moulton;<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0A five-way race for the congressional seat being vacated by Moulton between Middleton\u2019s Bethany Andres-Beck, Lynnfield\u2019s John Beccia III, Topsfield\u2019s Jamie Belsito, Andover\u2019s Dan Koh, Salem\u2019s Mariah Lancaster, and Andover\u2019s Tram Nguyen;<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0A contest for the state\u2019s Sixth District Governor\u2019s council seat between incumbent Terrence Kennedy and Marblehead\u2019s Diann Mary Baylis;<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0A three-way state senate seat race between Melrose State Rep. Kate Lipper Garabedian, Malden City Councilor Carey McDonald, and Malden City Councilor Ryan O\u2019Malley (incumbent Jason Lewis is not seeking re-election);<\/p>\n
\u2022 and a contest for the 13th Middlesex District state representative seat between incumbent Richard Haggerty and Reading resident Jadon Wilson.<\/p>\n
The Republican primary ballot includes just one contested race between Hamilton resident Michael Roger Minogue and Barnstable\u2019s Brian Shortsleeve to become their party\u2019s pick to run against incumbent Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey in November.<\/p>\n
Key deadlines<\/p>\n
According to Gemme, Reading residents who want to participate in the upcoming Sept. 1 primary elections should take note of the following deadlines:<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0The last day to register to vote is Saturday Aug. 22, when official paperwork must be submitted to the town clerk\u2019s office by no later than 5 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Tuesday, Aug. 25 at 5 p.m. is the deadline for requesting a vote by mail ballot for the Sept. 1 primary elections;<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Those requesting an absentee ballot via mail must do so by 5 p.m. on Aug. 25, while in-person requests for an absentee ballot can be made at Gemme\u2019s office until 12 p.m. on Monday, August 31.<\/p>\n
Early voting opportunties<\/p>\n
Starting on Saturday, Aug. 22, Reading residents will have several days to cast an in-person early ballots in the state primary election. This voting option must be performed in person by visiting Town Hall\u2019s 1st floor conference room. Early voting hours are as follows:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Saturday, August 22 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Monday, August 24 from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Tuesday, August 25 from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Wednesday, August 26 from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Thursday, August 27 from 7:30 a.m. to<\/p>\n
5:30 p.m<\/p>\n
Election Day voting<\/p>\n
Those who prefer to cast their ballots on traditional election days can do so at the Reading Memorial Field House from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING – Town Clerk Laura Gemme over the weekend revealed that her office will soon be sending mail-in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1930,14203,4158,8552,7722,836,902,4166,744,4163,114080,55866,4160,4162,386,50,4161,128,130,129,108596,114079,1824],"class_list":["post-270697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-accountability","tag-ballot","tag-democracy","tag-democratic-party-united-states","tag-early-voting","tag-election","tag-elections","tag-evaluation-methods","tag-government","tag-group-decision-making","tag-municipal-clerk","tag-organized-events","tag-parliamentary-procedure","tag-political-corruption","tag-political-events","tag-politics","tag-psephology","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-referendum","tag-seth-moulton","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}