How to Find Massachusetts Election and Campaign Records

Updated Oct. 17, 2026. Deadlines and rules checked against official sources on that date.

Most of what you need to check a political claim in Massachusetts is public and online. This guide lists the official sources The Boston Report uses for its election tracker and political coverage, what each one contains and its limits.

Election results

Massachusetts Election Statistics (electionstats.state.ma.us), run by the Secretary of the Commonwealth, is the official archive of certified results for state elections, primaries and ballot questions, searchable by year, office, district and stage. Each contest has its own page with totals by city, town and often precinct, plus downloadable files. Results appear there after they are certified, so election-night numbers will not be on the site.

For city elections, the City of Boston Election Department posts official results for municipal and state elections going back to 2005, with ward and precinct breakdowns in PDF form. Other cities and towns publish local results through their clerk’s office.

Candidates and ballots

The Secretary of the Commonwealth publishes the official list of candidates for each state election, the text of statewide ballot questions and the Information for Voters booklet. The “Where Do I Vote” tool shows a sample ballot for any address, which is the best way to see exactly which races you will vote on.

Campaign finance: state and local

The Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) collects reports from candidates for state, county and many municipal offices, along with political action committees and ballot question committees. Its website lets you search filers, see receipts and expenditures, and download data. Statewide and legislative candidates in Massachusetts file through OCPF rather than the federal government.

Campaign finance: federal

Candidates for U.S. Senate and U.S. House file with the Federal Election Commission. The FEC’s data pages show each campaign’s receipts, spending, cash on hand and debts, itemized donors, and independent spending by outside groups. The figures in our tracker come from the FEC’s public application programming interface and are refreshed daily, with the date of each campaign’s latest report shown next to its totals.

Lobbying and ethics

The Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Lobbyist Division posts registrations and disclosure reports from lobbyists and the organizations that hire them. The State Ethics Commission enforces the conflict-of-interest law and publishes its enforcement actions, and public officials file statements of financial interests. Massachusetts’ public records law covers most state agencies and municipalities, but the Legislature and the governor’s office have been treated as exempt; Question 1 on the 2026 ballot asks voters whether to change that.

Legislation and votes

The Legislature’s website, malegislature.gov, has bill text, committee assignments, hearing schedules and recorded roll-call votes for each session. For members of Congress, Congress.gov lists sponsored bills and roll-call votes, and the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress has official service records.

How we use these records

Each figure in our Massachusetts Election Tracker links back to the specific official page it came from, with the date we retrieved it and a label showing whether a result is unofficial or certified. If you find a discrepancy between our numbers and an official record, the official record controls; please tell us through our corrections page.