---
type: "Bill"
title: "An Act establishing the third Saturday in July as Negro Election Day"
description: "Senate, February 17, 2022 -- The committee on Rules, to whom was referred the Senate Bill to establish the third Saturday in July as Negro Election Day (Senate, No. 2083),-- reports, that the matter be placed in the Orders of the Day for the next session with an amendment substituting a new draft entitled “An Act establishing the third Saturday in July as Negro Election Day\" (Senate, No. 2703)."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ma"
legislature: "Massachusetts General Court"
session: "192nd"
identifier: "S 2703"
citation: "Massachusetts S 2703 (192nd)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Senate Committee on Rules"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 19
vote_count: 0
first_action: "2022-02-17"
last_action: "2022-07-25"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/48aebfb5-b5ed-4bc3-8e07-33fdba293fb5"
source_url: "https://malegislature.gov/Bills/192/S2703"
source_hash: "e59ba381bbf28a571afee2c90e308e26ebe75692cc80bbd755856243d911a2f8"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ma"]
---

# Massachusetts S 2703 (192nd) — An Act establishing the third Saturday in July as Negro Election Day

Senate, February 17, 2022 -- The committee on Rules, to whom was referred the Senate Bill to establish the third Saturday in July as Negro Election Day (Senate, No. 2083),-- reports, that the matter be placed in the Orders of the Day for the next session with an amendment substituting a new draft entitled “An Act establishing the third Saturday in July as Negro Election Day" (Senate, No. 2703).

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://malegislature.gov/Bills/192/S2703.pdf)

## Sponsors

- Senate Committee on Rules — primary (person)
- Bruce E. Tarr — cosponsor (person)
- Bud L. Williams — cosponsor (person)
- Joan B. Lovely — cosponsor (person)
- Kay Khan — cosponsor (person)
- Paul F. Tucker — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2022-02-17** Reported from the committee on Senate Rules
- **2022-02-17** Recommended new draft for S2083
- **2022-02-17** Substituted for S2083
- **2022-02-17** Ordered to a third reading
- **2022-02-17** Read third and passed to be engrossed `reading-3`
- **2022-02-22** Read; and referred to the committee on House Steering, Policy and Scheduling `referral-committee`
- **2022-03-29** Reported from the committee on House Steering, Policy and Scheduling
- **2022-03-29** Committee reported that the matter be placed in the Orders of the Day for the next sitting for a second reading
- **2022-07-11** Rules suspended
- **2022-07-11** Read second and ordered to a third reading `reading-2`
- **2022-07-13** Rules suspended
- **2022-07-13** Read third, amended and passed to be engrossed `reading-3`
- **2022-07-13** Rules suspended
- **2022-07-13** Senate concurred in the House amendment
- **2022-07-13** Emergency preamble adopted
- **2022-07-14** Emergency preamble adopted
- **2022-07-14** Enacted `passage`
- **2022-07-14** Enacted and laid before the Governor `passage`
- **2022-07-25** Signed by the Governor, Chapter 108 of the Acts of 2022 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/48aebfb5-b5ed-4bc3-8e07-33fdba293fb5`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Massachusetts legislature records).