Framingham Preliminary Election 2023: What To Know For Tuesday

FRAMINGHAM, MA — There will be one race on the ballot in a few precincts during Framingham's Tuesday preliminary elections. It's a light ballot, but the city was a missed deadline away from having no elections to vote for this week.

The city will host the preliminary election on Sept. 19, when voters in Precincts 1, 2 and 3 will go to Harmony Grove Elementary School to cast their ballots in the District 9 council race. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on that day.

Those polls were quite close to remaining closed for the full day after, in a video posted to his Facebook page, candidate Jose Ferreira announced that he would remove himself from contention in the race against incumbent City Councilor Tracey Bryant and challenger Albert J. Chimeno.

Preliminary races are only held when three candidates are in the running for a particular seat. However, Ferreira's name is still set to appear on the ballot despite his recent decision.

According to City Clerk Lisa Ferguson, the city didn't receive any written withdrawal notification by the Aug. 2 deadline.

In a phone interview with Patch, Ferreira confirmed that he fully intended to withdraw himself from the race, but also confirmed that he missed the deadline to file paperwork.

So what are the next steps for him?

Ferreira said he's no longer actively campaigning and has stopped taking donations as well. His name will still appear on the ballot but, should he garner the first or second most votes in the preliminary election — something he doesn't believe will happen — it'll be a "family decision" what he does next.

Tuesday will determine whether that's a decision he and his family will have to make.

There will be a number of contested races during the Nov. 7 election, and a full list of candidates can be viewed here.

Seats up for election in 2023 include:

• 11 City Councilor seats
• 9 School Committee seats
• 6 Library Trustee seats
• 2 Cemetery Trustee seats

There are nine district seats available on the City Council and School Committee, and those candidates will be running for two-year terms.

Seats on the Boards of Library and Cemetery Trustees, as well as two at-large city councilors, are for four-year terms.