Election Reform
I’ve begun looking at the statewide election result metrics (found at the RI BoE). The first thing I’ve focused on is the straight party ticket vote, and what I’ve learned is no surprise. Statewide, nearly 27% of all votes for Barack Obama came via the straight party ticket vote. That percentage was just above 14%…
Secretary of State Ralph Mollis appeared on WHJJ’s Helen Glover Show this morning. He attempted to explain why a voter I.D. law that passed a US Supreme Court challenge by six to three cannot be brought to Rhode Island during this legislative session The only logistic barrier to this law is the absence of a…
It appears that Secretary of State Ralph Mollis left the two most important reforms to Rhode Island’s electoral process out of his “Voter First” Legislative Package. The Secretary of State does not address at all his exclusion of a voter identification requirement from the package. As for the straight party lever, Secretary Mollis had this…
The New York Times is predicting gloom, doom and lawsuits as far as the eye can see. But anyone who values honest elections is breaking out the champagne to celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling yesterday which upheld Indiana’s voter i.d. law, a law which is hopefully coming soon to a polling place near…
[Note: the Devil’s Advocate signed in for this post to write the concluding paragraph.] From today’s Woonsocket Call: A move by the General Assembly to grant a waiver of the traditional waiting period for disaffiliating from a political party could put more voters at the polls for Tuesday’s Democratic Primary for the late Roger R.…
Given that the State Board of Elections website is showing that 2 of Hugh Cort’s 22 votes came from my precinct, I feel quite confident that here in the United States, every vote gets counted.
Paul Edward Parker of the ProJo investigated the voter rolls and found some discrepancies. The Board of Elections — which oversees the counting of votes — says 392,884 voters cast ballots in the Nov. 7 general election. The secretary of state’s Elections Division — which oversees the state’s Central Voter Registration System and tracks who…
Perhaps I should say “election change”…? Today, the RI Senate is supposed to discuss and vote on: S0020 – “This act would reduce the waiting period required for disaffiliation with a political party from 90 days to 29 days.” S0760 – “…an individual cannot file a declaration of candidacy for more than one elected public…
Choose for yourself which one of Projo columnist Charles Bakst’s thoughts on election reform is worse.Bakst opposes requiring photo-IDs at the polls…Without more evidence than I know of that voter fraud is a genuine problem, [Secretary of State Ralph Mollis] courts heartache by raising the prospect of requiring a photo ID at the polls. The…
Building on Andrew’s post (and apparently this is a case of lunch-hour, blog-posting serendipity) Jim Baron of the Pawtucket Times reports: Secretary of State Ralph Mollis has assembled a bi-partisan “Voters First Advisory Committee” — which includes the woman who ran against him in the November election – to hash out a list of 10…
