Poli-ticks

It's time to shape up the R.I. Board of Elections

By Arlene Violet
Posted 12/2/16

I have a soft spot for the Rhode Island Board of Elections. My father was on it at the time of his death. Then-Governor Dennis J. Roberts appointed my mother to fill out his term of office. I …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Poli-ticks

It's time to shape up the R.I. Board of Elections

Posted

I have a soft spot for the Rhode Island Board of Elections. My father was on it at the time of his death. Then-Governor Dennis J. Roberts appointed my mother to fill out his term of office. I remember the long hours for them. Subsequently, I’ve always kept an eye out for stories about the Elections Board and the staff. They haven’t been pretty. After this past November election, the Board of Elections has some explaining to do!

Under Rhode Island law it has the responsibility to supervise elections and provide all necessary tools to carry out the local voting in every district. There was a lot of jawboning following the election about long lines, insufficient numbers of tally machines, and jammed machines. The Secretary of State took the hit unfairly since it is the Board’s responsibility. I was on WPRO election night with host Tara Granahan and former ABC-6 anchor, Dave Layman. We tried to make repeated calls to the board because of the problems and also about the tally involving the Speaker, but nobody answered the phone. We subsequently found out that it was a day off for the staff!

You heard it right. Yes, the Board and the staff have Election Day off. Their major responsibility every other year absent a special election is to get the process done right and the votes counted — but nobody was at work. Even more appalling was a WPRI story the next day where the reporter was live at the scene and pointed to a woman in a white T-shirt feeding the machine with the ballots cast previously that were either collected in bins because the machines didn’t work or were so-called “emergency ballots”. Other than the man handing her the ballots, nobody else was present. The reporter went on to comment that in another room out of view were a few workers who were “copying” ballots which were bent and could not be put through the machines onto blank leftover ballots for processing! There’s no proof that anything nefarious was going on, but the opportunity for voter fraud was epic.

Certainly, in the Speaker’s race which was going to come down to mail ballots, as was a few other tight races, the State Police should have impounded the ballots and only have allowed anything done with unprocessed ballots under the watchful eye of representatives from the affected districts.

Under state law, the Board of Elections is also responsible for the correction of voting lists. The mess of too many eligible voters vs. the census as reported by the Providence Journal was first and foremost due to the Board’s failure to clean up the roll. Fortunately, Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea’s spokesperson stated that she had joined the ERIC system in Fiscal Year 2015, and after this election will work with the cities and towns which have identified about 54,192 inactive names on the roster. Kudos to her for wrapping her arms around the problem since the election Board has been M.I.A.

The Secretary is looking to extend the voting days which, while laudable, should be deferred from implementation until appropriate procedures are in place at the Board of Elections. Otherwise the opportunity for fraud will multiply after the votes arrive at 50 Branch Avenue.

Arlene Violet is an attorney and former Rhode Island Attorney General.

Arlene Violet

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Mike Rego

Mike Rego has worked at East Bay Newspapers since 2001, helping the company launch The Westport Shorelines. He soon after became a Sports Editor, spending the next 10-plus years in that role before taking over as editor of The East Providence Post in February of 2012. To contact Mike about The Post or to submit information, suggest story ideas or photo opportunities, etc. in East Providence, email mrego@eastbaymediagroup.com.