Election Department certifies candidates for Municipal Election

The list below is not final. The list will become final after July 5 if there are no withdrawals or objections.

To hold a preliminary for a local election, there has to be enough candidates on the ballot for a given contest. A Preliminary Election's purpose is to narrow down the number of candidates to the top two front runners of each contest.

This year there are four candidates for Mayor. This calls for a citywide Preliminary Municipal Election on September 26, 2017.

There will be no preliminary for the City Councilor-At-Large contest. The reason why is that there must be at least nine candidates running for the four seats. This year, there are four incumbents and four challengers for City Councilor-At-Large.

Four City Council Districts will hold preliminaries on September 26, 2017. Districts one, two, seven, and nine have all met the candidate requirement to call for a Preliminary Election. Each district race has at least three candidates running. But, the remaining five out of nine District City Council contests will not have a preliminary.

On July 13, 2017 the Boston Election Department will host the Ballot Position Drawing. This determines the order in which candidates names will appear on the Ballot for the Preliminary Municipal Election. The drawing is open to the public. We will also broadcast the drawing live from 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. in Room 801 of Boston City Hall. You can watch the live broadcast on Comcast 24, RCN 13, and Verizon 1962.