---
type: "Bill"
title: "An Act granting authority to postpone 2020 municipal elections in the commonwealth and increase voting options in response to the declaration of emergency to respond to COVID-19"
description: "Senate, March 23, 2020 -- The committee on Senate Ways and Means to whom was referred the House Bill relative to host community agreements (House, No. 4398),-- reported, in part, a \"Bill granting authority to postpone 2020 municipal elections in the commonwealth and increase voting options in response to the declaration of emergency to respond to COVID-19\" (Senate, No. 2608)."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ma"
legislature: "Massachusetts General Court"
session: "191st"
identifier: "S 2608"
citation: "Massachusetts S 2608 (191st)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Senate Committee on Ways and Means"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 11
vote_count: 0
first_action: "2020-03-23"
last_action: "2020-03-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/d794cb9d-4100-431a-8ecd-bc2bc9506795"
source_url: "https://malegislature.gov/Bills/191/S2608"
source_hash: "748a8ed731331234cac0368197e018cd0be7b129f0ef2c3dd59a91145223a32a"
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 2608 (191st) — An Act granting authority to postpone 2020 municipal elections in the commonwealth and increase voting options in response to the declaration of emergency to respond to COVID-19

Senate, March 23, 2020 -- The committee on Senate Ways and Means to whom was referred the House Bill relative to host community agreements (House, No. 4398),-- reported, in part, a "Bill granting authority to postpone 2020 municipal elections in the commonwealth and increase voting options in response to the declaration of emergency to respond to COVID-19" (Senate, No. 2608).

## 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/191/S2608.pdf)

## Sponsors

- Senate Committee on Ways and Means — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2020-03-23** Reported from the committee on Senate Ways and Means
- **2020-03-23** Reported on a part of H4398
- **2020-03-23** Bill reported favorably by committee `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2020-03-23** Rules suspended
- **2020-03-23** Read second, ordered to a third reading, read third and passed to be engrossed `reading-2, reading-3`
- **2020-03-23** Read, rules suspended, read second, ordered to a third reading, read third and passed to be engrossed `reading-1, reading-2, reading-3`
- **2020-03-23** Emergency preamble adopted
- **2020-03-23** Emergency preamble adopted
- **2020-03-23** Enacted `passage`
- **2020-03-23** Enacted and laid before the Governor `passage`
- **2020-03-23** Signed by the Governor, Chapter 45 of the Acts of 2020 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/d794cb9d-4100-431a-8ecd-bc2bc9506795`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Massachusetts legislature records).