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Rhode Island
Election-related wins and losses from the 2024 legislative session • Rhode Island Current
For seven years, a four-letter mistake has haunted Common Cause Executive Director John Marion.
In drafting legislation to require a post-election review verifying accuracy and security of primary and general election results, Marion wrote “statewide” rather than “state.” In doing so, Marion inadvertently let legislative races skirt this audit requirement, which applied to other local, state and federal races. The bill passed, mistake included, much to Marion’s dismay.
At last, Marion can at last rest his troubled mind, with updated legislation approved by the Rhode Island General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Dan McKee in June that adds state legislative races to what is known as a risk-limiting audit.
The new law is one of a half-dozen elections and voting-related bills to clear the Rhode Island State House this year. Most of the approved changes offer slight improvements rather than sweeping reforms, but that doesn’t mean they are unimportant, Marion said.
“Just because there wasn’t a signature success doesn’t mean we didn’t advance election administration and voting rights,” he said. “There’s good hygiene that needs to take place sometimes.”
Even more so when it rides the coattails of scandal.
Among the new laws is one born out of the signature scandal that enveloped Sabina Matos’ congressional campaign last year. In addition to a criminal investigation and charges against the pair of campaign consultants alleged to be responsible for the fake signatures, the scandal laid bare problems with the signature review process.
The law cuts through the confusion by requiring local election workers to notify state officials when they spot potentially fraudulent signatures, setting off a process by which the state elections board then notifies other municipalities and, potentially, reviews the suspicious signatures itself.
Marion lauded the legislature for taking swift action.
“Too often, we see scandals occur and people say there should be some reform to address the scandal but there’s never a reform,” he said. “It’s good they did it now, before this faded from memory.”
Voting by mail enhanced
Also fresh on lawmakers’ minds is the sweeping 2022 Let RI Vote Act, which dramatically expanded voter access including the option of no-excuse mail ballots.
“This is our first presidential election since the Let RI Vote Act, so we’re still trying to determine if these changes need to be tweaked or expanded upon,” said Miguel Nunez, executive director for the Rhode Island Board of Elections.
Lawmakers this year agreed to state elections board-generated proposals to open mail drop boxes earlier and tack on three more days for local boards of canvassers to accept mail ballot applications.
As mail ballots grow in popularity among local voters, so have numbers of just-missed-the-deadline applicants, whose mailed forms arrive a day or two late, said Nick Lima, elections director for the city of Cranston. Not only do late applicants miss a chance to mail their ballots, but the late submissions still require local election workers to file needless paperwork indicating the application has been rejected.
“It’s just an administrative deadline, so it didn’t make sense for the law to be so rigid,” Lima said.
Especially because one-third of late applicants for mail ballots never ended up voting in-person after their applications were rejected, according to analysis of 2020 and 2022 elections by the Rhode Island Board of Elections.
Hassle-free primaries for independent voters
Saving local election workers time and hassle is also the intent behind another new, Secretary of State-backed law that removes the requirement for voters to affiliate, or change affiliations, before participating in a party primary.
The phenomenon of affiliating then disaffiliating is particularly prevalent in Rhode Island, where nearly half of registered voters typically identify as independent. Many also want to detach themselves from a party label immediately after a primary, creating thousands of forms for local elections workers to sift through, said Secretary of State Gregg Amore.
Removing the affiliation requirement also eases the process for voters who might forget to change their affiliation prior to a primary and therefore be ineligible to participate. Amore expected to see an uptick in primary election participation under the new law, though the upcoming September primaries may be too soon for the change to take hold in public perception.
Amore’s backing also helped secure passage for another bill that will apply to upcoming elections, specifically, the ballot questions, which now must be written in “plain language” at an 8th-grade reading level.
“There’s a growing movement in government and elections administration to use plain language and this is really important,” Marion said.
He added, “It’s nice to see it pass without taking years and years.”
Better luck next year, same-day voter registration
The same cannot be said for the push for same-day voter registration, which has failed to gain traction on Smith Hill for four years. Acknowledging lawmakers’ hesitancy to change longstanding state policy, Common Cause diluted its proposal this year, pitching a change to the state constitution that would eliminate the 30-day residency requirement rather than enshrining same-day registration in the state’s guiding document. Still, the proposed constitution amendment, also supported by Amore, failed to advance out of committee in either chamber.
Marion was undeterred.
“In our experience, constitutional amendments often take several cycles to gain momentum,” he said. “It’s an educational process. As we begin to talk about this more we realize that not just the public but lawmakers don’t appreciate how much Rhode Island is an outlier.”
Twenty-two other states and Washington D.C. already allow same day voter registration. Rhode Island is also one of three states that enshrines its voter registration deadline in the constitution, Marion said.
ConCon question returns
Which opens up another avenue to the same end: a constitutional convention. Voters will get a chance to decide this November whether to take advantage of the once-in-a-decade opportunity to take a fresh look at the state’s governing document.
While appetite for the decennial gathering has waned in recent decades — the last constitutional convention was held in 1986 — Sen. Sam Zurier is eying a prospective convention to settle debate over alternative voting methods.
Following his leadership of a Senate panel tasked with studying various voting options, Zurier, a Providence Democrat, pitched a legislative reform that would have removed the constitutional provision for plurality voting. His bill, along with a separate proposal by fellow Providence Democratic Rep. Rebecca Kislak to offer ranked-choice voting in presidential preference primaries, both failed to advance beyond committee this year.
Zurier was unsurprised.
“It was more of an effort to introduce the concept,” he said of his legislation. “I did not see this change as something that would happen quickly.”
Especially given objections by election administrators who called for more education and equipment before considering such a dramatic overhaul to how voting works in Rhode Island.
Ranked-choice voting: More work to do
High-profile state or national races where a crowded field produces a winner with a low percentage of voters may help galvanize reform, especially now that Rhode Island has local organizers ready to capitalize on that momentum, Marion said. That includes Ocean State Ranked Choice Voting, a nonprofit that launched last year in the midst of the 12-way Democratic primary for the 1st Congressional District seat.
Organization leaders have been making the rounds to farmers markets and summer festivals, in addition to traditional meetings at town halls and on Smith Hill to educate voters on their preferred voting alternative, said Leah Creiglow, secretary of the board of directors.
“This current presidential election and the lack of choice overwhelmingly people are feeling is another example of why we need a system that favors voters over power dynamics,” Creiglow said. “We are really trying to capitalize on this.”
Two other changes that could have helped local and state election administrators through what is expected to be an exhausting and turbulent election cycle remain in legislative purgatory. One would have banned “fraudulent and synthetic media” — more commonly known as “deepfakes” — in the 90 days leading up an election.
An amended version passed the House but stalled in the Senate, in part because of hesitation over the industry-backed amendments which exempted creators of the technology from facing sanctions for its use.
Priorities: Protecting voters and elections workers
Having seen how AI-generated robocalls sent to New Hampshire voters ahead of the state’s February presidential primary hurt election participation, Amore was worried for Rhode Island.
“It’s not necessarily the attacks against candidates I fear, but the misinformation about voting that will intimidate or restrict the ability of people to vote,” Amore said.
However, he acknowledged the difficulties in legislating guardrails around a new and evolving technology, pledging to take another crack again next year. Also on Amore’s 2025 legislative priorities list is revival of a failed bill that would increase penalties for those who threaten election administrators and poll workers.
Rhode Island is not Maricopa County, Arizona, Lima acknowledged. But hostility toward election workers is not confined to battleground states. Last year, he and his coworkers arrived at Cranston City Hall to find the office window shattered, a rock lying on the floor inside.
Lima didn’t think the perpetrator meant to aim for the election office, but it rattled his colleagues, nonetheless.
“It’s important for us to let election administrators know ‘we have your back,’” Amore said. “In many states, they are playing defense on voting reform. We want to still keep playing offense.”
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As if the aftermath of her explosion at the Studio 54 party wasn’t enough to deal with, Liz also now has to figure out what to do with the six bunches of bananas that Gary accidentally ordered when he meant to order six individual bananas. But until they’re ripe enough to make banana bread, she’ll focus on the other issue. “I came across as a bitter, drunken, witch,” she tells Dolores — three words that I have to imagine also appear on the show’s casting notice.
Meanwhile, Ashley takes some of the other women to her favorite beach, and Alicia, who is used to her country club, is terrified. “This is not my vibe, I’m freaking out,” she whispers as she’s forced to carry her chair, bag, and snacks. The snacks in question are something called “pizza chips,” which appears to just be bread with sauce on it? Alicia, being the brain behind Pizza Mamma, tries to break down the science to us, saying that cheese can’t sit out in the sun, but she need not explain. She had me at pizza chips.
She also had me when she revealed that Rulla apparently met Brian while he was married to Alicia’s high school Spanish teacher. “I don’t know if this is true, Brian cheated on his first wife, my Spanish teacher,” she says with her hands over her heart, “with Rulla. I hope that’s not true because I really did like my Spanish teacher.” Yet again, I’m obsessed with how deep the ties between these women go. A game of six degrees of separation hates to see them coming. I also love Alicia starting a declarative sentence with, “I don’t know if this is true,” but she should say it in Spanish next time.
And speaking of those deep ties, we already know that there was some connection between Jo-Ellen’s sister and Jo-Ellen’s husband while they were in high school, before Jo-Ellen swooped in. But now we’re finally getting to meet Jen, who is basically subbing for Jo-Ellen at the house while she’s on a work trip. “She perpetuates this fun little game of flirting with my husband,” Jo-Ellen explains, but assures us that nothing is going on. That being said, Jen does joke that they’re like an old married couple and Jo-Ellen tells us that Jen wants his sperm to have a baby…but apart from that I guess everything is totally normal! I’m putting together a list of side characters who should be in the running to hold clams in future seasons, and so far Jen and Alicia’s Spanish teacher are leading the pack.
But when it comes to side characters, the real stars are of course Alicia’s aunts, who are thankfully back on our screens for a backyard barbecue with some of the ladies. And what better group to speak frankly to Rulla about her situation with Brian? The second Rulla alludes to bumps in the road, this beautiful coven of scorned divorcées pounce, encouraging Rulla to leave him. “Do you want to spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder?” one of them asks her, and later in her confessional Rulla even admits that those words stayed with her. I feel like we’re seeing something real with Rulla and she’s finally letting the glossy veneer slip. But the best commentary comes from Alicia’s mother, who says, “I just hope and pray that you somehow hurt him…I’m gonna pray you get him back.” Forget the usual Bravo aftershows, I want a show that’s just all of Alicia’s aunts watching and commentating on each week’s episode. The ratings will be higher than the MASH finale.
As for Liz and Kelsey’s simmering conflict, the pair finally meet up to clear the air by the water where Liz’s boat is docked. I’ve seen similar meetings play out just like this on The Sopranos, so I had to keep reminding myself that Kelsey was safe because surely Bravo would never broadcast a woman being murdered. Then again, this would be the show to break that glass ceiling. As it turns out, I had no reason to fear because the sit-down goes incredibly smoothly. Liz explains that it felt like Kelsey was co-signing the rumors by bringing them up, and Kelsey says her instinct for Liz to keep her distance from Dino actually had more to do with her own history. She explains that ten years ago she and Dino hooked up but it didn’t go well, and now his presence is a reminder of a time in her life that she’s trying to forget. She even says she has PTSD over it and now avoids him like the plague, but respects that Liz has a meaningful friendship with him. I still have a lot of questions about this, but ultimately Liz and Kelsey clear the air and reconcile.
And thank god, because then they’re able to go rail biking in peace. All of the women split up into groups to cycle their way three miles down an old railroad track, with drinks in hand of course. “Rullala, how you doing back there?” Alicia asks as they ride, which made me scream out in delight upon once again getting to hear my new favorite word: “Rullala.” It’s my mantra. I say it no fewer than 50 times a day. It’s a greeting, it’s a prayer, it’s a way of life. Better yet, when the camera cuts to Rulla, she finally wins me over. Mid-cycle she’s shaking a cocktail shaker and pouring her tequila into a wine glass. Leave Brian and his bullshit at home, this is the woman that I want to see on my screen.
I’m even more enamored with her once they get to their location and she’s horrified to discover Alicia’s financial situation. She’s telling the ladies about not feeling valued given that her husband won’t put her name on the house or business, and Rulla, being a financial planner, springs into action. Seeing this smart, powerful side of her, especially as she’s trying to empower Alicia, is a great look and is far more compelling than watching her meekly defend her cheating husband. It gives a glimpse at what an independent Rulla might look like on this show in a couple of seasons.
But she’s not the only one supporting Alicia — Kelsey steps up to play Billy in a role-play so Alicia can practice airing her grievances. Sidebar: everyone talks about these women looking alike, but the real problem is that all of their partners have such similar names. Alicia’s is Billy, Kelsey’s boyfriend’s is Bill, Rulla’s is Brian, Jo-Ellen’s is Gary, Liz’s is Gerry, Ashley’s is Jared, and thankfully Rosie’s is just Rich. But oh my god, how am I supposed to keep that all straight? Anyway, the little role-play Alicia does ends up being heartbreaking, as she gets emotional saying that he makes her feel worthless in their relationship. But the fact that we’re talking about this so much feels promising, and I hope we get to see Alicia ultimately bring all of these feelings to Billy. And if he doesn’t listen, I hope her aunts attack him.
The conversation then turns to how Liz has been gelling with newbie Ashley, and they joke about how Ashley is a little scared of her. When the Studio 54 party comes up, Liz says that that wasn’t her finest moment and wasn’t a good representation of what she’s really like. “Alicia, you said she’s always like that,” Rosie says, throwing Alicia right under the bus. “Don’t flip that shit, don’t do that to me, don’t put shit in my mouth,” Alicia fires back, as Dolores looks on like a proud mother. “She twisted my words, you’re a fucking troll,” Alicia yells, saying that Rosie fucked her. It’s a line-o-rama of iconic outbursts, one after another: “Welcome to Rhode Island, bitch, this is how we roll,” then, “Fucking thirsty bitch, so thirsty its scary,” and finally, “I need to get out of here cause I’m gonna end up killing her.” Our first death threat!
But the craziest part of this comes when Alicia and Rosie step away from the group for a moment. It’s allegedly to sidebar, but I was convinced it was so Alicia could murder her with fewer witnesses. Alicia tells her that if she apologizes everything will be good, Rosie apologies, and then things are good. “Did she just hug her?” someone asks from the circle, shocked. The series has had a lot of incredible moments thus far, but this one is what is most promising about its longevity as a Housewives show. The secret sauce of these shows is resilience — the ability to be as angry at someone as humanly possible, and move on like nothing happened so they can do it all over again. Long, drawn-out grudges make for bad television (as RHOBH proves), so this cast’s ability to reconcile and move on will be the thing that makes it great.
New East Bay Bike Path bridges are open and ready for bikes
What’s it like to ride over the new East Bay Bike Path bridges? We sent a reporter to try them out.
I’ve long thought bike paths are among Rhode Island’s premier attractions, up there with the beaches, the mansions and the bay.
We like to knock government, but credit where it’s due, the state has done an amazing job building out an incredible pedaling network.
It’s clearly a priority.
At least I thought it was.
But they’ve just dropped the ball on what should have been a beautiful new stretch.
The plan was to finish a mile-long connector from the East Providence end of the Henderson Bridge all the way to the East Bay Bike Path.
There was even $25 million set aside to get it done.
Except WPRI recently reported that it’s now been canceled.
The main fault lies with the Trump administration, which is no friend of bike paths, and moved to kill that $25 million.
But it gets complicated, as government funding always does.
To try to rescue that money, the state DOT reportedly worked with the administration to refunnel it into a road project. Specifically, the $25 million will now be spent helping upgrade the mile-long highway between the Henderson Bridge and North Broadway in East Providence, turning it into a more pleasant boulevard.
That totally sounds worthy.
But it’s insane to throw away the bike path plan.
Especially for a particular reason in this case.
They’d already put a ton of money into starting it.
When state planners designed the new Henderson Bridge between the East Side and East Providence, they included a bike path.
It’s a beauty – well protected from traffic by a barrier, a great asset for safely riding over the Seekonk River.
The plan was to continue it another mile or so along East Providence’s Waterfront Drive, ultimately connecting with the East Bay Bike Path, which runs all the way to Bristol. Which, by the way, is one of the nicest bike paths you’ll find anywhere.
But alas, that connector plan has been canceled.
So the expensive stretch over the Henderson Bridge to East Providence is now a bike path to nowhere. Once the bridge ends, the path on it continues a few hundred yards or so and then, just … ends.
Too bad.
We were so close.
Most of the stories on the issue have been about the complex negotiation to rescue the $25 million by rerouting it to that nearby highway-to-boulevard project. But I don’t want to get lost in the weeds of that bureaucratic process here because it loses sight of the heart of this story.
Which is that an amazing new addition to one of the nation’s best state bike path systems has just been scrapped.
You can knock the Rhode Island government for blowing a lot of things.
The PawSox.
The Washington Bridge.
But they’ve done great with bike paths.
And especially, linking many of them together.
Example: not too many years ago, Providence bikers had to risk dicey traffic on the East Side to get to the more pleasant paths in India Point Park and on the 195 bridge to the East Bay Path.
But the state fixed that by adding an amazing connector that starts behind the Salvation Army building and beautifully winds along the water of the Seekonk River for a mile or so.
That makes a huge difference – and no doubt has avoided some bike-car accidents.
We were close to a comparable stretch on the other side of the river – that’s what the $25 million would have done.
But it’s now apparently dead.
Online commenters aren’t happy about it.
On a Reddit string, “Toadscoper” accused the state of being “complicit” with the feds in rerouting the money from bikes to cars.
And there was this fascinating post from FineLobster 5322, who apparently is a disappointed planner who worked on the project: “Mind you money has already been spent on phase one so rejecting it at this point is wasting money and also against the public interest … but what do I know? I only worked on the project as an engineer … I didn’t get into this to build more highways. I do it … to give back to communities and give them more access to their environment.”
Wow. One can imagine the state planning team is devastated. That’s not a small consideration. Good people go into government to make life better in Rhode Island, and it’s a bad play to take the spirit out of the job by first assigning a great human-scale project and then, after a ton of work, trashing it.
A poster named Homosapiens simply said, “We just accept this?”
Hopefully not.
The first stretch of the path over the Henderson Bridge is done, money already sunk.
What a shame to leave that as a path to nowhere.
It doesn’t have to happen.
Between Governor McKee and our Washington delegation, there’s got to be a way to get this done.
There’s got to be.
mpatinki@providencejournal.com
WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — Two people are dead and another person seriously hurt after a crash involving two vehicles on the highway in Warwick Saturday.
Rhode Island State Police said the crash happened around 1:34 p.m. on the ramp from Route 113 West to I-95 South.
According to police, a Hyundai SUV that was driving in the middle lane of the highway started to drift to the right, crossed the first lane, and then crossed onto the on-ramp lane. The car struck the guardrail twice before driving through the grass median.
The Hyundai then struck the driver’s side of a Mercedes SUV that was on the ramp, causing the Mercedes to roll over and come to a rest. The impact sent the Hyundai over the guardrail and down an embankment.
The driver of the Hyundai, a 73-year-old man, and his passenger, a 69-year-old woman, were both pronounced dead at the hospital.
A woman who was in the Mercedes was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital in critical condition.
State police said all lanes of traffic were reopened by 4:30 p.m.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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