Election Reform
According to Ken Block, founder of the Rhode Island Moderate Party and creator and sponsor of the Eliminate the Master Lever in Rhode Island! website, just five more State Representatives out of a total 31 undecideds are needed for a majority of Reps to be on record as supporting the elimination of straight-party voting (a.k.a…
We’ve written about this multiple times before, banning the master lever, also known as straight ticket or straight party voting. It’s that option at the top of a ballot where you can simply connect one line and vote for every candidate on the ballot affiliated with that party, in partisan races. I believe this should…
Edward Fitzpatrick has a column today in the Providence Journal about some comments from state officials on their findings about how the voting went during this month’s election. Unfortunately, the focus is always on the precincts that had the most trouble, especially the Juanita Sanchez precinct in Providence where it was reported that some people…
I will admit that when Ralph Mollis first ran for Secretary of State (SoS), I was no fan of his or his candidacy. It seemed that while there wasn’t anything direct to pin on him, there was always a cloud of trouble around him as mayor of North Providence. However in the six years or…
…if Rhode Island didn’t award it’s electoral votes on a winner take-all basis, unless a candidate exceeded 62.5% of the popular vote! Why 62.5%, you ask? Read the answer here; it will remain valid at least through the 2020 election. Proportional allocation with winner-take-all above a certain threshold could be put into effect for the…
Apparently the state of Rhode Island doesn’t. The state is owed $1,245,200 as of August, and possibly more by now. According to a monthly report from the RI Board of Elections, more than 250 politicians, candidates and Political Action Committees (PAC), both past and present, owe amounts ranging from as little as $25 to as…
Well this must really be absolute crazytown. When I’m on the same side of an issue as Bob Plain and opposite from WPRO’s Matt Allen, it really makes me wonder if I’ve been replaced by aliens or something. Tonight on his radio show, Matt was debuting the new and more crotchety Matt Allen. A changed…
“35% of the presidential ballots probably will be cast before election day“: Early voting is often promoted as a convenience for harried citizens. But it may be a bigger boon for candidates, enabling them to deploy money and personnel more efficiently as they work to corral votes as soon as possible. “By encouraging our supporters…
Mutliple sources are reporting that William San Bento has ended the day with a one vote lead over Carlos Tobon in the District 58 (Pawtucket) Democratic primary for State Representative. Apparently four different recounts have produced four different results, with further recounts possible. According to the Associated Press……the final tally came down to a single…
By all accounts, Voter ID went pretty well yesterday in Rhode Island. But all right-thinking people know it’s election reform* is not needed. Heck, look at Maryland (h/t)…. Wendy Rosen, the Democratic challenger to Republican Rep. Andy Harris in the 1st Congressional District, withdrew from the race Monday amid allegations that she voted in elections…
