Super Tuesday — when a large number of states will hold presidential primary elections and caucuses — is on March 5.
The states holding primary elections on Super Tuesday will be Alabama, Alaska Republican presidential caucuses, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa Democratic caucus main vote, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah Democratic presidential primary and Republican presidential caucuses, Vermont, and Virginia. U.S. presidential primary elections typically start in February and end in June. In some states, such as Alaska, Iowa, and Utah, the primaries and caucuses are held separately by each party. In other states, the primaries and caucuses are held, allowing members of all political parties to participate. Primaries award delegates. During the primary elections or caucuses, the number of delegates each party’s national nominating convention will receive from their respective states will be determined.
Following the primaries and caucuses, each party’s nominees for president and vice president will be selected during the party’s national nominating convention. The 2024 Republican National Convention is scheduled to take place at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from July 15 to July 18. The 2024 Democratic National Convention is scheduled to be held at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois from August 19 to 22 after the Republican National Convention, since the Democrats currently hold the White House. At the national convention, state delegates vote to confirm their choice of candidates or in the case that no candidate gets votes from the majority of a party’s delegates, state delegates choose the nominee after additional rounds of voting during the national convention.
On Super Tuesday, March 5, the polls will open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Any U.S. citizen who is a registered voter can vote in the Massachusetts primaries. Voters do not need to be a party member to participate in the primaries. Nevertheless, voters registered as a party member will not be allowed to vote in the primaries of other parties while independent voters are allowed to vote in any party primary. The voter registration deadline is February 24 and the vote by mail application deadline is February 27. Massachusetts allows early voting for primaries. Early voting for the presidential primaries will be held from Saturday February 24 to Friday March 1 during designated hours.
There are 3 recognized political parties in Massachusetts: Democratic Party, Libertarian Party, and Republican Party. On each ballot, voters will also see contests for state party positions, including State Committee Man, State Committee Woman, and Ward Committee. On the ballot for the Democratic Party, voters will see incumbent President Joe Biden as well as US representative Dean Phillips, and author and politician Marianne Williamson. Back in December in 2023, the Massachusetts Democratic Party submitted only Biden’s name for the Massachusetts Super Tuesday presidential primary ballot. Massachusetts Democrats are the latest in a string of state parties to leave president Biden’s rivals off their lists of candidates for the primary ballot. Both Phillips and Williamson were placed on the ballot by Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin after Williamson cried foul over the incumbent protection. On the Democratic ballot, voters will also see state representative Tommy Vitolo and state treasurer Deborah Goldberg for State Democratic Committee seats.
On the ballot for the Libertarian Party, voters will see attorney, author, and politician Jacob George Hornberger, author Michael Rectenwald, political activist Chase Russell Oliver, former candidate for Congress Mike ter Maat and Lars Damian Mapstead. The Libertarian Party does not have a state committee or ward committee. Voters will only see presidential candidates on the ballot.
On the ballot for the Republican Party, voters will see former president Donald Trump, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Ryan Binkley, Vivek Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. There has been an ongoing legal battle across the country between advocacy groups and the state’s courts to bar former president Donald Trump from being listed on the ballot. As of early February 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court was considering a Colorado case to drop Trump from the ballot. A decision in this case will have national implications.
In Massachusetts, Free Speech For People and Massachusetts-based civil rights firm Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P. C filed an objection with the Massachusetts Ballot Law Commission to having Trump’s name on the ballot, citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution which is also known as the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment prohibits the election of anyone who previously under an oath of office engaged in insurrection or rebellion. The challenge considers Trump to be ineligible for any future public office, after the attack on Congress on January 6 2020 to prevent the certification of the election results. The challenge asks the Massachusetts Ballot Law Commission to bar Trump from appearing on the state ballot, abiding by Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Massachusetts Ballot Law Commission denied the request to remove Trump’s name and after the petitioners appealed to the state’s highest court, a Supreme Judicial Court judge has ruled that Trump’s name can appear on the primary ballots in Massachusetts because the statute petitioners cite as reasons for the commission to remove Trump’s name does not apply as Trump is not yet a nominee for president.
The objection has been filed in many states. Trump was disqualified from the primary ballots in Colorado and Maine but Trump has appealed the decision. On the Republican ballot, voters will also see Tom Mountain and Vladislav S. Yanovsky running for one Republican State Committee Man seat and Susan Huffman and Rosann Palermo Fleischauer running for one Republican State Committee Woman seat.
Several of the candidates, including Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, and Asa Hutchinson on the Republican ballot and Marianne Williamson on the Democratic ballot have suspended their presidential campaigns since the printing of the ballots in early January. Voters might still be able to cast ballots for them and these candidates may still amass delegates if party rules allow for it.
Full details on where and how to vote in your neighborhood can be found here:https://www.mass.gov/news/voting-early-in-massachusetts-heres-what-you-need-to-know
