789K primary ballot applications going into the mail

Dottie McCarthy of the Warwick Board of Canvassers calls it “ping pong,” and indeed what Rhode Island voters will go through for a largely by-mail preferential presidential primary on June 2 includes a lot of back-and-forth between the secretary of state, the Rhode Island Board of Elections, municipal election boards and the voter.

The process has started on a grand scale with the mailing of ballot applications to 789,000 on the rolls as registered voters, Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea said in an interview.

Registered Democrats or Republicans will receive an application that they will need to sign and return in a pre-paid envelope by May 19 in order to receive a ballot to vote in their party primary. Unaffiliated voters will also get a mail application on which they will designate which party primary they intend to vote.

The secretary of state’s office encourages anyone who does not receive an application by May 1 to contact the Elections Division at 222-2340 or elections@sos.ri.gov.

Completed applications are returned to the State Board of Elections, which will sort them by municipality and send them to cities and towns. The job then shifts to the city or town board of elections to certify the validity of the applicant by comparing the signature with their voter files. In the case of Warwick, this could be in excess of 60,000 registered voters.

That task would seem monumental under normal conditions, and impossible during a pandemic when City Hall is closed and most employees are working from home.

“I’m fine,” said McCarthy, who has been working from her laptop at home and accesses records through the state’s Central Voter Registration System, or CVRS. She is confident she and her staff of Donna Collins and Michael Rooney will work through the applications. Once verified, applications will be returned to the secretary of state.

Gorbea points out that this will be the first mailing to all voters on the state rolls since 2004. She sees it as a cleansing of the records, as she expects applications will be returned because the person at an address has moved, changed their name or died. She urges residents receiving an application for a person not living at that address to mark the envelope accordingly and leave it for the postal carrier or drop it in a postal box.

“Don’t throw it out or put it out for recycling,” she urged.

Since taking office, Gorbea observed she has “legally” removed 130,000 from the voter rolls due to death, authorization from the voter, felony incarceration, being judged mentally incompetent by a court of law, or a record being made inactive. That occurs if a piece of official elections mail sent to a voter is returned as undeliverable, or if a voter has not voted in one of the last two federal elections or in one of the past four elections.

Now that the once crowded Democratic field has been cleared, and with Joe Biden as the party’s presumed candidate, Gorbea doesn’t see the primary commanding the attention it would otherwise have. Nonetheless, she points out, there are still contests for delegates, and because the primary initially scheduled for April 28 has been delayed, the Rhode Island primary will coincide with primaries in 11 other states to give the state greater national visibility than it has had in the past.

Other primaries being held on June 2 include Connecticut, Delaware, D.C., Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and South Dakota.

Certified ballot applications will then be returned to the secretary of state, who will mail out the ballots including an “oath envelope.” On receipt, the voter is to complete the ballot and enclose it in the “oath envelope” and mail it in a postage paid envelope to the State Board of Elections.

Usually, two witnesses or a notary must sign the envelope, but that is not going to be required under these circumstances, Gorbea said.

The signature on the “oath envelope” serves as the voter verification. The ballot does not carry the name of the voter, as otherwise it would not be a secret ballot. The ballots are rapidly counted electronically. As the process will start before polls close, Gorbea expects results to be known relatively quickly – although probably not as fast as on previous election nights.

In addition to mailed ballots, there will be at least one polling location per municipality during the primary for those who failed to turn an application or didn’t get a ballot. Because of its size, Warwick will have two polling locations. Those arrangements haven’t been finalized, and until they are, McCarthy won’t release details.

Gorbea said her office has received $3 million in federal funding to conduct elections this year.

“A predominantly mail ballot election will ensure that all eligible Rhode Islanders can cast a ballot in a safe and secure manner while protecting the integrity of every vote,” she said.