RI voting plagued with problems

September 16, 2004

Associated Press

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Secre-tary of State Matt Brown said Wednesday that the Board of Elections failed in its responsibilities to conduct elections, and he is calling on the agency to make immediate changes to its operations.

Brown's criticism came a day after a statewide primary election, in which voting irregularities were reported in the city of Cranston.

Brown said the board failed to properly train poll workers for Tuesday's primary.

"When the chairman of the Board of Elections acknowledges that there were not a sufficient amount of poll workers in Cranston and the chairman of the local Board of Canvassers says 'poll workers received training but not enough,' it is painfully obvious the Board of Elections has not met its responsibilities," Brown said in a statement.

The voting in Cranston was plagued by problems — election workers mistakenly fed an estimated 90 "provisional" ballots into voting machines; registered voters were bounced around to several voting locations because poll workers misread the voting list; and a Cranston firefighter was arrested at a polling location for smoking marijuana in the school's bathroom.

Because of the problems, the Board of Elections announced Tuesday night that if any Cranston race had less than a 100-vote margin, a special election may be called.

"These problems violate the integrity of our elections," Brown said, noting not all problems were in the West Bay city.

Providence informed 23,000 voters in a mailing over the weekend of the wrong polling location.

Brown said the Elections Board needs to make major changes immediately to avoid similar problems in November's general election.

He said the board must appoint state inspectors to work at every polling location in Rhode Island, recruit more poll workers and train poll workers better.

Brown said the irregularities at the polls Tuesday follow a series of troubling news from the Elections Board.

Recently the executive director of the board took a paid administrative leave, and a state police investigation is under way looking into allegations of "possible misappropriation of funds" there.

A message left with the Elections Board wasn't immediately returned.