Eight Taunton precincts and Dartmouth's Precinct 9 vote Tuesday in places they did not use in 2024

TAUNTON Voters in eight of Taunton's 18 precincts and in Dartmouth's Precinct 9 will cast ballots Tuesday, Nov. 3, in different buildings than they used in the last state election, in November 2024. Taunton's Municipal Council approved its moves 9-0 on March 25, 2025, and Dartmouth's Select Board approved its change unanimously on May 11, 2026, according to the minutes of both boards.

Polls at every site open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m., the warrants for the state election in both communities say.

Taunton

Taunton precincts at new polling places since November 2024

Ward and precinct	Polling place Tuesday, Nov. 3
Ward 1, Precincts A and A1	Former temporary City Hall, 141 Oak St.
Ward 2, Precincts A and B	Senior Center, the Center at Olney, 30 Olney St.
Ward 5, Precincts A and B	Former Coyle Cassidy building, 2 Hamilton St.
Ward 6, Precincts A and B	Taunton VFW, 82 Ingell St.

The city lost Hopewell School as a polling place, Director of Elections Mark Pacheco told the council, and he said the school was not in any shape to host an election. Ward 5, Precinct A had voted at Hopewell Elementary School, 16 Monroe St., and Precinct B at the Holy Rosary Parish Center on Bay Street, according to slides Pacheco showed the city's Election Commission on Feb. 25, 2025. Both precincts now vote at 2 Hamilton St., the former Coyle and Cassidy High School building, which the slides put 1.1 miles from Hopewell and 0.4 mile from the parish center. Commission Chairman Frank E. Biedak called it a great city-owned modern facility, the commission's minutes say.

Ward 6's two precincts had voted at the Leddy School on Second Street and at the Department of Public Works building, 90 Ingell St. Pacheco told the council the public works site had parking lot problems, a very small voting room, no safe place for campaign sign holders outside the 150-foot line and a long walk for voters with mobility issues, and that the Leddy School also had parking problems and no safe place for sign holders. Both precincts now vote at the VFW, which the slides put 0.1 mile from the public works building and 0.7 mile from the school.

In Ward 2, the city lost St. Andrew the Apostle Church as a polling place because the church would prefer to hold only church-related functions, Pacheco told the council. In January 2025 he had proposed combining the St. Andrew's and Liberty Christian Center polling places at the senior center on Olney Street, which he said has 103 housing authority apartments on site, heat and air conditioning, ample parking and public transportation next door. In March he told the commission that residents of senior housing across the street from the Olney Street site had been traveling to 141 Oak St. to vote. His final plan moved Ward 2's two precincts to Olney Street and, as the commission's minutes put it, backfilled the 141 Oak St. site with Ward 1, Precincts A and A1, and the commission backed it unanimously at a 4 p.m. meeting on the day the council voted.

Before approving the plan, the council rejected 5-4 a motion to delay most of the moves until June 11, 2025. Councilors Sanders, Pottier, Martin and Borges voted for the delay, and Councilors Coute, Duarte, Postell, Quintal and McCaul voted against it, the minutes show. All nine councilors were present for both votes. Pacheco told the council the city planned to mail postcards to affected voters and post signs at the old sites. The Elections Department, at City Hall, 15 Summer St., takes questions at 508-821-1044.

Dartmouth

Precinct 9 voters, who had voted at the Council on Aging, 628 Dartmouth St., now go to the Dartmouth Youth Soccer Association field house, 580 Russells Mills Road, under the town's warrant for Tuesday. Town Clerk Sarah Haskell Arruda told the Select Board on May 11 that the town had received some feedback on the Council on Aging site, which stays the polling place for Precinct 6. She told the board the change would take effect with the September state primary and that voters would be notified in several ways, the minutes say. Haskell Arruda told The Dartmouth Week that the field house has its own parking lot and entrance, so Dartmouth High School traffic should not be a problem, and that no games are played there in November.

Precinct 3 votes on the UMass Dartmouth campus, 285 Old Westport Road, under the warrant. The clerk told the board in May that a new spot on campus is available that is accessible and has ample parking, and that students will work the polls there, the minutes say.

Fall River and New Bedford

Seven Fall River precincts and two New Bedford precincts also vote at new sites this year. Poll hours, what to bring and the late mail ballot rule are in our Election Day guide. The New Bedford moves are in our New Bedford story, the Fall River moves are listed in our voter rights guide, and every other community's polling places are in our where to vote guide.

Any voter can look up an assigned polling place by street address on the Secretary of the Commonwealth's Where Do I Vote page, which Taunton's Elections Department points voters to.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.