Voting Rights

The demand for mail ballots in the recent election shows the need to allow for early voting, Rhode Island’s secretary of state said Wednesday.

It's a week until Election Day 2018. William Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth for Massachusetts, sent out a reminder that Tuesday, Oct. 30, marks four days left to vote early; early voting closes on Friday, Nov. 2.

Rhode Island voters are making heavy use of a state law that allows them to cast their votes early for Wednesday's primary at city and town halls.

In 2013 Common Cause Rhode Island issued a report on problems with the administration of the 2012 election titled, “We have to fix that.” After sending dozens of volunteers around Rhode Island in 2016 we are back with an update; “We (still) have to fix that.”

In 2012 Common Cause had volunteers at the polls in Rhode Island to observe the process. What we found was much room for improvement. Our report, ‘We have to fix that,’ provides details of what went wrong, and what can be done to fix that.