RI elections board approves early voting regulations

For four years, local election administrators have relied on a single sentence in state law to carry out early in-person voting.

Not anymore.

Regulations approved by a 4-0 vote of the Rhode Island Board of Elections at its meeting Tuesday codify and add detail to the process and protections for early voting, available at designated locations 20 days before primary and general elections. 

“The state board, and local boards, were looking for some sort of structure and rules around conduct of early voting so it can be a more formalized process, and more uniform,” Miguel Nunez, elections board executive director, said in an interview Tuesday.

Early in-person voting has become increasingly popular since it debuted during the 2020 election cycle. Originally brought on as a pandemic-era measure, the option to cast ballots early, along with expanded access to mail ballots, was enshrined in state law under the 2022 Let RI Vote Act. But the law does not specify how local boards of canvassers and municipal clerks should carry out the early voting process for the thousands of voters who choose to cast ballots early. 

The 14-page guidance adopted Tuesday fills the gap, tackling voter identification, ballot submission and tabulation, security and voter conduct. The rules are nearly identical to what’s already on the books for polling places on Election Day.

One noteworthy exception: political signs and candidates aren’t allowed within 50 feet of election day polling places. But the early voting regulations leave the buffer zone untouched, an omission meant to sidestep the political debate left unresolved after the legislative session this year.

The Rhode Island House of Representatives approved legislation in May by a 68-1 vote, with six abstentions, adding the 50-foot buffer zone for early voting, but the Senate companion never advanced out of committee. The ACLU expressed concerns, to legislators and again to the state elections board, about free speech implications given that early voting lasts 20 days, and is typically held in city or town halls.

“The seat of municipal government is often the most logical, practical, and symbolic location to hold a political rally,” Steven Brown, executive director for the ACLU, wrote in a June 24 letter to the state election board. “Yet the effect of this legislation would be to stifle that opportunity for three key weeks of the year.”

Ray Marcaccio, the election board’s legal counsel, advised the board not to address the 50-foot ban in its early voting regulations. 

“It’s always been something that’s given us concern,” Marcaccio said of politicking next to early voting sites. “But we thought it was better to not have that requirement for that extended period of time.”

Nick Lima, Cranston elections director and chair of the elections committee for the Rhode Island Town and City Clerks’ Association, maintained that regulatory backing would help prevent candidates from getting too close to voters during early voting.

In 2024, Cranston election administrators marked the 50-foot boundary around City Hall with chalk, which candidates respected, Lima told the elections board Tuesday. But other municipalities did not have the same experience.

“Our colleagues in other cities and towns had candidates obstructing doorways, going into voting sites,” Lima said of the 2024 early voting process. “They were left to enforce against that without any legal backing.” 

The adopted regulations will now be submitted to the Rhode Island Department of State for formal enactment, expected by Wednesday, Nunez said.

Early voting for the Sept. 9 state primaries begins on Thursday, Aug. 20.  

Election board members Marcela Betancur, Randall Jackvony and David Sholes were absent from the meeting.