Belchertown Town Clerk

Belchertown Town Clerk Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Belchertown Town Clerk, Government Organization, 2 Jabish Street, Belchertown, MA.

08/28/2026

THE MORE YOU KNOW: Ballot questions answered, part 3

Question: Now that early in-person voting has ended and it's past the deadline for me to get a ballot through the mail, what are my options to vote?

Answer: At this point, 4 days till the election on September 1st, there are only 2 ways to vote.

1. A registered voter who will be unable to vote at the polls on Election Day due to absence from the voter's city or town during polling hours, disability, or religious beliefs is qualified to vote absentee in-person. This deadline is noon, Monday August 31st, the day before the election. Come to the Town Clerk's Office to vote absentee in-person.

2. The last option is to come and vote in person on election day. The polls will be open on September 1st from 7am - 8pm. We are in the gymnasium at the Belchertown High School.

If you have any questions, you should know by now, we are more than happy to help and address any concerns you may have about elections. Feel free to email us at [email protected] or call 413-323-0281. Please note that the office will be closing on Monday at 3pm so we can go to the school and set up for the election. Thank you!

08/27/2026

Last 2 days to vote Early in-person for the Sept. 1, 2026 State Primary are today, August 27th and tomorrow, August 28th. We are here in the auditorium at Town Hall from 8am - 5pm. Lots of parking and a quick, simple process.

If you have requested a ballot by mail, please be sure to return it as soon as possible. The secure drop box is located at the ramp entrance to Town Hall and is available 24/7. Thank you!

08/26/2026

THE MORE YOU KNOW - Ballot questions answered, part 2

Question: What happens to my mail-in ballot after I return it to the Town Clerk?

Answer: Whether you return your mail-in ballot by mail or use the drop box or hand deliver, all ballots are managed the same.

First, the outer envelope is time/date stamped. Next the inner ballot envelope is removed from the outer envelope and also time/date stamped. Next, the vote by mail application is pulled and compared to the ballot envelope to be sure the signatures match. Next each ballot envelope is scanned into the State voter database to record when the ballot was received and how. Then the ballot envelopes are sorted by precinct and alphabetical by voter name and stored in the walk-in safe at Town Hall until election day.

On the day of the election, all the ballots, still sealed in their envelopes, are taken to the polls. They are distributed to the correct precinct where they are then checked in on the poll pad, just as if a person were there, and a receipt is printed. A list is pulled from the State voter rolls of every ballot that was mailed and the physical ballot envelope is checked against this list.

Lastly, the ballot is separated from their envelope face down, keeping the ballots and envelopes separated to maintain secrecy of the vote and then the ballots are put through the tabulators and counted. This is why you may see election workers putting multiple ballots through at a time. They are processing the vote-by mail ballots.

So, as you can see, there is a lengthy checks and balances system for mail-in ballots. This is why we ask you to return your ballot as early as you can and with over 2800 to process, it is quite a task.

As always, please feel free to contact the Town Clerk's office with any questions about elections and maybe we can do a part 3 of this series! We are here to help everyone understand the process and feel confident however you choose to vote.

08/22/2026

THE MORE YOU KNOW - Ballot questions answered:

Question: What happens when I write-in my friends name or Santa Claus or Mickey Mouse, on my ballot as a joke? (yes we get these every election)

Answer: Based on State Law regarding tallying ballots, first, that ballot gets pulled aside at the close of the election, hand counted and the information for all write-ins is manually documented. Depending on the volume, this can take us over an hour to do.

At the end of the count, the votes are tallied up and if a person received more votes than anyone else for that race, in a local election, they are elected. For a State Election, you can see how you would need to have thousands of votes to win a race.

If it is a fictitious name, that vote is counted as a blank and the totals are adjusted. If it is a real name but only a few votes, they are recorded in the record as "all others" and the individual names are not recorded in the final tally.

As you can see, this drastically slows down the process of getting results at the end of the night, when lots of miscellaneous write-in votes must be hand counted and recorded.

While it is your ballot and you are free to vote as you wish, just be aware of what happens on the back end of write-in votes and how this delays the reporting of election results.

If you are interested in the closing out of an election, let the Town Clerk's Office know and we are happy to have you join us and observe the end of the night processes.

Any questions, please feel free to call the Town Clerk's office at 413-323-0281 or [email protected]. Thank you :)

08/19/2026

Early in-person voting begins this Saturday, August 22nd from 9am - 3pm in the auditorium at Town Hall.
There is a large tag sale on the common as well, but we will have reserved parking spaces here at Town Hall for voters.
Next week, August 24th - 28th, early in-person voting will be from 8am - 5pm, also in the Town Hall auditorium.

If you have received a vote by mail ballot, please return it as soon as possible. There is a drop box by the ramp entrance to Town Hall that is accessible 24/7.

If you have any election questions, please feel free to contact the Town Clerk at 413-323-0281 or [email protected].

08/13/2026

Sept. 1st Primary Election date reminders:

Last day to register to vote: Aug. 22nd
Last day to request a ballot by mail: Aug 25th
Early in-person voting Aug 22nd - 28th - Town Hall Aud. See the Town Clerk's webpage for hours - www.belchertown.org.
Date of Election - Sept. 1st at the Belchertown High School Gymnasium from 7am - 8pm. Sample ballots are on our website

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns at 413-323-0281 or [email protected].

07/24/2026

Thanks to help from some of my amazing Election Workers, all the ballots for the Sept. 1st Primary, requested so far, are ready to be mailed out on Monday, July 27th! Thank you to Carol, Erica, MaryAnn, Nancy and Peg!

Remember, you can use the drop box here at Town Hall to return your ballots, 24/7. It is emptied several times a day and completely secure. The earlier you return your ballot, the more time it gives us to process and secure it for the election. There are many steps and checks and balances that must take place with each ballot, and with over 2000 ballots already being mailed out, you can imagine the workload. If we can spread that out over time, it makes it much easier for us, rather than trying to process the ballots days before the election.

To track your ballot, or see if you have already requested one, you can use https://www.sec.state.ma.us/WhereDoIVoteMA/TrackMyBallot

Reminder, when filling out your ballot, please completely fill in the circle. Don't use an X or check mark, the tabulator cannot read those and they end up having to be hand counted at the end of the night. Also, while it may be fun to write-in Santa Claus or Mickey Mouse or your neighbor, those also must be hand counted and hand dismissed, also adding more time at the end of the night. If you wondered why it sometimes takes hours to get results, X's and check marks and funny write-ins are the main contributors to bogging down the process. Please help us to get results out quicker.

There is still time to request a ballot by mail and we have added applications to the side of the drop box at Town Hall. Simply fill out the form and drop it in the box and we will get your ballot out to you.

Please note the wrong phone number for my office was published in this week's Sentinel. It should be 413-323-0281. Please feel free to contact my office with any questions or concerns. We can also be reached at [email protected].

07/21/2026

The vote by mail ballots have arrived in the Town Clerk's Office and we have begun getting the packets ready for mailing. If you have already requested a ballot by mail for the September 1st State Primary, they should begin hitting mailboxes by the end of July. Currently we have nearly 2,000 requests so please be patient as we are working as quickly as we can.

There is still time to request a ballot by mail. You can request a ballot online at www.mass.gov or you can come in to the Town Clerk's office and complete an application or you can also print an application off the Town Clerk's website at www.belchertown.org and either return it by mail, or drop it in the drop box here at Town Hall. If you still have the postcard that the State mailed out, you can also return that to request a ballot by mail.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our office and we are happy to help. You can reach us at 413-323-0281 and by email at [email protected].

07/08/2026

2026 VOTING BY MAIL POSTCARDS

All Massachusetts voters have the option to vote early by mail in all 2026 elections, with no excuse required.
Forty-five days before each statewide election, the Secretary of the Commonwealth will send a pre-addressed, postage pre-paid Vote by Mail application to every registered voter before each statewide election. This mailing is required by state law and is going out the week of July 5, 2026.

You won’t be sent an application if you’ve already applied to vote by mail for the upcoming elections.

You can use this application to request a ballot for the next statewide election, or for all remaining elections this year. Simply mark your selections, sign the application, and drop it in the mail or the drop box here at Town Hall at 2 Jabish St., Belchertown.

The deadline to request a ballot for the September 1, 2026 State Primary is Tuesday, August 25, 2026 at 5 p.m.

Please contact the Town Clerk’s office at 413-323-2081 or email [email protected], with any questions or concerns.

05/19/2026

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS MAY 18, 2026 ELECTION:
Select Board
Lesa Lessard Pearson - 921
Michael McMorrow - 800

School Committee-
Heidi Gutekenst - 977
Hope Guardenier - 1106
Joshua Wallace -799

Planning Board
Daniel Beaudette -1369

Moderator
Benjamin Farrell - 1369

Board of Assessors
Loring Michael Caney, Jr. - 1348

Board of Assessors
Jean Marie Leone - 1331

Board of Health
Kenneth Elstein - 1303
David Gottsegen - 1335

Housing Authority
Write-ins to be determined once counted

Official results will be posted as soon as certified.

Address

2 Jabish Street
Belchertown, MA
01007

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

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