More than a third of Massachusetts board seats are vacant, expired

Massachusetts is facing a little noticed breakdown in democracy. More than one-third of seats on state boards and commissions are either vacant or occupied by people whose terms expired months or years ago, according to a Globe review last week. In all, the Globe counted 919 vacancies and 867 holdover members on nearly 700 boards that oversee everything from a cranberry research center to a commission studying postpartum depression.