News Clips

PROVIDENCE — The last time Rhode Island held a presidential primary, just one-third of polling places opened, resulting in confusion that led some voters to simply give up.

The court battle over South Carolina election security is heating up. A group of citizens and its allies are warning that paperless voting machines aren’t safe from foreign interference.

The 2020 calendar puts Rhode Island’s September primary so close to the general election the state might violate a federal deadline to get ballots to troops serving overseas. And, surging demand to vote before Election Day is swamping the state Board of Elections and city halls in cumbersome “emergency mail ballots.”

Rhode Island lawmakers this year will likely be confronted with two competing proposals to make it easier to vote before Election Day, as state elections officials warn of possible calamity if laws are not changed before 2020.

Rhode Island is on pace to become the second state to use risk-limiting election audits, beginning with the presidential primary in 2020, having conducted three trial runs earlier this month. These audits—essentially a check to ensure votes are being counted correctly—limit the risk a wrong election result is certified, and Colorado performed the first in November 2017.

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.