NEW BEDFORD Early voting is open across the South Coast, and in Swansea the Nov. 3 ballot runs ten questions: the nine statewide measures plus a local Proposition 2 1/2 debt exemption that would pay the bonds for a new junior high school building on the Joseph Case High School campus.
Question 10 asks whether Swansea may exempt from Proposition 2 1/2 the amounts needed to pay bonds for a school of about 114,707 square feet serving 510 students in grades 6 through 8, at 70 School St. The town's warrant booklet budgets the project at $149,723,734, with about $61.4 million expected back in Massachusetts School Building Authority reimbursement and rebates, leaving a town share of $88,278,988. The district's tax estimate puts the cost for the average single-family home, assessed at $494,954, at $141 to $200 a quarter on a 30-year bond, about $564 to $800 a year, and notes the estimate assumes the full contingency is spent, which it says is not typical.
The ballot vote is the second of two local approvals the project needs. The first was the Town Meeting appropriation, which required a two-thirds majority. The current junior high dates to 1927 and the 1950s, and the district says a renovation estimated at $98.6 million would not win state support. Swansea's other nine questions are the statewide measures. The town votes at Joseph Case High School, 70 School St., from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Elsewhere on the South Coast, the Nov. 3 ballots carry the nine statewide questions. Wareham's specimen ballot, in two cards, previews the nine questions Wareham voters will decide alongside every race from U.S. Senate to county offices. Dartmouth's ballot is the nine statewide questions, and the town votes at nine polling places Nov. 3.
Fall River's ballot runs across two cards: Questions 1 through 7 on Card 1 with every race, and Questions 8 and 9 on Card 2. Voters can preview the full ballot on the specimen ballots posted on the Elections Department's page at fallriverma.gov. In the South Coast's other towns, voters can preview their own ballots through the specimen ballots posted by their town clerks and through the Secretary of the Commonwealth's website.
Three dates frame the next two weeks. Saturday, Oct. 24, is the last day to register to vote for the election. In-person early voting runs through Friday, Oct. 30. And polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3. In Acushnet, the Board of Registrars opens sealed early ballots in advance on Oct. 30 at 1 p.m. at 130 Main St.
The nine statewide questions, from public records and public defenders to the all-party primary and the firearms referendum, are explained one by one in the SC360 voter guide, with what a yes vote and a no vote would do on each.
Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.
Notes
This is a consolidation of SC360's own verified, live stories, with no new reporting: every figure and date above appears in the cited live stories, each of which was verified from town or city primary records (the Swansea selectmen's amended agenda with the election warrant, the Swansea warrant booklet and forum presentation, the Wareham specimen ballot, the Dartmouth election warrant, four Fall River Elections Department documents and the Acushnet clerk's notice). The Fall River sentence describes only what the city's Oct. 15 notice says and points readers to the city's specimen ballots online; it does not assert whether Fall River has local questions. The Wareham and Dartmouth lines assert nine-question ballots because those towns' verified records (the posted specimen ballot and the election warrant) say so directly. The Town Meeting outcome for the Swansea appropriation is not asserted: the stories in hand preview the vote but do not record its result, so the piece describes only the two-vote path. Political content is limited to ballot mechanics and district cost estimates, attributed to the warrant booklet and the district presentation. No students are named.
Corrections
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Sources (6)
- SC360: Swansea voters will decide 10 ballot questions Nov. 3, including a school building override (verified Oct. 21 from the Swansea Board of Selectmen amended Oct. 20 agenda with the election warrant)The Swansea question list, the Question 10 wording (the debt exemption, 114,707 square feet, 510 students in grades 6 through 8, 70 School St.) and the polling place and hours. Read Oct. 22, 2026.
- SC360: Swansea votes Monday on a $149.7 million Case Junior High, the first of two local votes the project needs (verified from the town's warrant booklet and the district's forum presentation)The project figures: $149,723,734 budget, about $61.4 million in state reimbursement and rebates, $88,278,988 town share, the $494,954 average home at $141 to $200 a quarter ($564 to $800 a year), the two-vote path with the two-thirds Town Meeting requirement, the 1927 and 1950s dates and the $98.6 million renovation estimate. Read Oct. 22, 2026.
- SC360: Wareham posts sample ballot for the Nov. 3 state election (verified from the town's posted specimen ballot)The Wareham card: the specimen ballot posted Oct. 19 in two cards, previewing the candidates and the nine questions Wareham voters will decide. Read Oct. 22, 2026.
- SC360: Dartmouth's Nov. 3 election polling places and ballot questions (verified from the Select Board's election warrant)Dartmouth's nine statewide questions and the warrant's nine polling places. Read Oct. 22, 2026.
- SC360: Fall River's two-card ballot and early voting for Nov. 3 (verified from four Elections Department documents)The two-card layout: Questions 1 through 7 with the races on Card 1, Questions 8 and 9 on Card 2, from the department's Oct. 15 notice; the Oct. 24 registration deadline; early voting through Oct. 30; polls 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Read Oct. 22, 2026.
- SC360: Acushnet will open sealed early ballots Oct. 30, ahead of the Nov. 3 election (verified from the town clerk's notice)The Acushnet advance removal session: Friday, Oct. 30, 1 p.m., 130 Main St. Read Oct. 22, 2026.