Candy Cane Candidate

Whenever I'm watching these types of movies, I willingly accept a suspension of disbelief, because it's a movie, not a documentary. At the same time, I expect some level of plausibility. Julia has just lost an election for Boston City Council (appears to have been a special election) and returns to her hometown on the other side of the state to think about her future (run again or work for the green company, both worthy choices). Nevertheless, I have no idea how Julia can consider a run for mayor of her hometown, considering that she's a non-resident who may or may not have filed any papers in an off-camera moment. I'm also thinking that there's no way an outgoing mayor can arbitrarily change an election date to suit her personal schedule - don't they have a city charter that covers things like special elections and what happens if the mayor dies or resigns? Election irregularities like this could put them all in jail. These problems could have been resolved by some handwaving on part of the writers. For example, having the city solicitor say that he/she has checked the charter and that special elections have some flexibility around residency and election requirements would preserve that suspension of disbelief.