Gorbea on New State Archives Exhibit & 2019 Legislative Agenda on LIVE
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea joined GoLocalProv.com News Editor Kate Nagle on GoLocal LIVE, where she spoke to the new State Archives exhibit — as well as her 2019 legislative agenda.
Gorbea spoke to ”150 Years of Big Ideas in Little Rhody" at the State Archives at 337 Westminster Street in Providence, which explores the history of invention and industry in Rhode Island through three-dimensional patent models, trademarks, businesses, and ideas that began in Rhode Island. Gorbea also spoke to working to find a permanent home for the State Archives.
In 2019, Gorbea said that she will once again introduce early in-person voting legislation in the General Assembly, which would allow for voting on the Saturday and Sunday before Election Day and would implement the same process voters use at a polling place rather than the cumbersome mail ballot process used today. Just like Election Day, voters would scan their ID and then sign their ballot application using an electronic poll book. They would then mark and immediately cast their ballot into a voting machine.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIn addition to early in-person voting legislation, Gorbea is looking to move Rhode Island’s primary election to the third Tuesday after the first Monday in August, stating that military and overseas voters will have very little time to receive and return their ballots for the November 2020 election.
Gorbea said that based on the 2020 election calendar, the time between the state primary and general election is so short that Rhode Island will violate federal law by not getting military and overseas ballots out 45-days in advance of the general election.
Lastly, Gorbea said she will introduce a set of bills aimed at updating elections administration. This includes legislation that will allow voters who are registered as “unaffiliated” to remain unaffiliated after voting in a primary without having to fill out a disaffiliation form and legislation that clarifies what voter information is included in the public voter file.
Responding to privacy concerns from constituents, Gorbea said that she made the decision in 2017 to only provide year of birth in the aggregated data export of the voter file. Her proposed legislation will update the law to reflect current practice and remove language that has previously been ruled unconstitutional by the courts.
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