Chapter
384
2007 -- H 6133 AS AMENDED
Enacted 07/07/07
A N A C T
RELATING
TO ELECTIONS - REGISTRATIONS OF VOTERS
Introduced
By: Representatives Lewiss, Pacheco, Kennedy, Gallison, and Melo
Date
Introduced: March 08, 2007
It is enacted by the General Assembly as
follows:
SECTION 1.
Sections 17-9.1-17, 17-9.1-25 and 17-9.1-26 of the General Laws in
Chapter 17-9.1 entitled "Registration of
Voters" are hereby amended to read as follows:
17-9.1-17.
Reregistration -- Notice to city or town of previous address. -- (a) A
voter
may register in a city or town into which he or
she has moved whether or not the voter has
notified the board of the city or town in which
the voter was last registered of the voter's change
of address. The action of registration shall
automatically cancel the voter's registration in the
former city or town. The secretary of state
shall be notified by the local boards of the registration
in the new city or town and of the cancellation
of the former registration.
(b) The local
board of any city or town shall, upon receiving the registration of any
person, notify the board of the city or town
stated by the person to be that person's last place of
residence, of the registration. At that time,
the last mentioned board shall forward retain the
original registration card of the person to
the other board, and shall immediately notify the
secretary of state of the action in accordance with
the approved records retention schedule for
boards of canvassers issued by the state
archives.
(c) The state
board shall have authority by regulation to direct the manner in which the
provisions of this section are carried out by
the local boards and the secretary of state.
17-9.1-25.
Acknowledgement of registration or change of address -- Verification of
residence. -- (a) The local board of
each city or town shall mail an acknowledgement card notice
to each newly registered voter and to each voter
who changes his or her voting residence within
seven (7) days after receipt of the registration
or change of residence. The acknowledgement card
notice shall notify the applicant for registration of
the disposition of the application, i.e., whether
the application is deemed accepted or denied. If
denied, the reason for the denial shall be
indicated on the card notice. The
acknowledgement card notice shall be mailed to the applicant at
the address from which he or she registered and
shall be clearly marked: "Do Not Forward --
Return If Undeliverable". Provided,
however, that the New Shoreham Board of Canvassers may
address the acknowledgement card notice,
and any other notice that may be required by this
chapter, to the person's post office box if said
post office box is located within the confines of
New Shoreham.
(b) The
acknowledgement form shall be a postal card of a size and other
specifications
that shall be determined by the state board and
shall be substantially in the following form;
provided, that the wording of the form may be
revised and updated from time to time by the state
board in a manner to make its content as easily
readable and understandable as possible:
Front Side
Board of
Canvassers Affix
Address of Board
of Canvassers Postage
for the city or
town in which registered
ADDRESS
CORRECTION REQUESTED RETURN POSTAGE
GUARANTEED DO
NOT FORWARD
Voter's Name
Voter's
Address
______________________________________________________________________________
Reverse Side
______________________________________________________________________________
Your application to register to vote has been
received and accepted. The following is
information concerning your voting districts.
Your U.S.
Representative District is _________________________________________
Your State Senate District is
________________________________________________
Your Representative District is ______________________________________________
Your Council District is
____________________________________________________
Your Ward District
is ______________________________________________________
Your Voting District is
_____________________________________________________
Locations of polling places for these districts
may be obtained from newspaper
advertisements preceding each election or by
calling your local board.
Your application
to register to vote has been received incomplete. Please contact our
office at the telephone number or address listed
below.
Your application
to register to vote has been rejected because _______________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
If this card is addressed to a person who does
not live at this address, please ask your
mail carrier to return it to the sender.
Board of
Canvassers
Address
Telephone Number
(c) The form may
also contain any other information that may be required by the state
board.
(d) Those postal
cards notices that are returned as undeliverable to the local board
shall
be reviewed to verify that the address was
correctly printed on the card notice. All cards notices
returned as undeliverable shall be attached to
the registration cards notices and maintained as a
record of the local board.
(e) Any voter
whose application to register to vote has been accepted, but whose
acknowledgement card notice has
been returned by postal authorities as undeliverable, shall be
placed on an inactive list of voters and shall
not be permitted to vote unless an affirmation form is
completed. The local board shall be required,
upon receipt of the undeliverable acknowledgement
card notice, to commence the confirmation
process described in section 17-9.1-26.
17-9.1-26.
Confirmation process -- Verification of the address of registered voter. --
(a) (1) Whenever: (i) an acknowledgement card,
which was mailed to a voter whose application
to register to vote has been accepted, is
returned as undeliverable; (ii) through the periodic
updating of voter registration records as
provided in section 17-9.1-27, a change of address is
detected for any voter; (iii) as the result of a
challenge under section 17-9.1-28, the challenged
voter fails to appear before the local board; or
(iv) a mailing by the jury commissioner to a voter
is returned as undeliverable; the local board
shall begin the confirmation process described in
subsection (b) of this section.
(2) Whenever any
other official mailing from either the state board or a local board or
from the office of the secretary of state, which
official mailing has been sent to at least a majority
of the registered voters in a particular city or
town, is returned as undeliverable to any one or
more of the voters to whom it was mailed, the
local board may commence the confirmation
process described in subsection (b) of this
section.
(b) The
confirmation form notice shall be sent by first-class forwardable
mail and shall be
of any size or other specifications that shall
be determined by the state board. The form shall be
designed so that a portion of it notice shall include
a voter registration form that may be used by
the voter to verify or correct the voter's
residence address for voting purposes.
(c) The
confirmation form notice shall be prepared in substantially the
following form
and shall contain substantially the following
information, subject to any additional information as
may be required by the state board; provided,
that the wording of the form may be revised and
updated from time to time by the state board in
a manner to make its content as easily readable
and understandable as possible:
Front Side
______________________________________________________________________________
return address of postage
local board
mailing
address of voter
______________________________________________________________________________
Reverse Side
The board of
canvassers has received information that you may no longer reside at the
address
from which you are currently registered. If you
have not permanently changed your residence
address or if you have permanently changed your
residence address but continue to live in the
same city or town you should immediately return
the post card attached to the bottom of this form
voter registration form no later than fourteen (14)
days after the date of this mailing even if this
notice was mailed to your correct current
address. If the post card voter registration form is not
returned, affirmation or confirmation of your
current address may be required at the polls on
election day. If the post card registration
form is not returned and you do not vote by __________
which is the date of the second general election
following the date of this mailing, then your name
may be removed from the voter registration list.
If you have permanently changed residence
address to another city or town in Rhode
Island, please detach, complete, and return the postcard
at the bottom of this form even if this notice
was mailed to your correct current address. Please
note that in order to vote, you will have to
register with the voter registration office in your new
city or town. Even though you have returned the
post card below, you must register in your new
city or town in order to be eligible to vote. completed voter
registration form to the local board of
canvassers in the city or town of your current
address.
Board of
Canvassers of City/Town
of
___________________________________
Address:
______________________________________________________________
Telephone Number: _____________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Full Name
____________________________________________________________________
Date of Birth ________________________________________________________________
Telephone Number (optional)
__________________________________________________
My residential
address is:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Mailing address (only if different from
residential address)
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
Signature
______________________________________________________________________
Date
__________________________________________________________________________
Warning!
If you knowingly provide false voter registration information on this form, you
may be
guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment
for a term of not more than ten (10) years or by a
fine of not less than one thousand dollars
($1,000) nor more than five thousand dollars ($5,000),
or both, for each offense.
_____________________________________________________________________________
(d) The
confirmation form notice shall be mailed to both the voter's
current registered
address and any new residence address, to the extent
both addresses are available to the local
board.
(e) If a
confirmation card notice is mailed to a voter and returned as
undeliverable, or if
delivered and the voter has not responded within
fourteen (14) days from the date of the mailing,
the voter shall remain on or be placed on the
inactive list and shall not be permitted to vote until
the voter has signed an affirmation form at
either the approved polling place or at the local board
of canvassers as provided in this chapter. If
the voter fails to vote by the second general election
following the date of the confirmation mailing,
then the voter shall be removed from the voting
list. Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions,
if the confirmation mailing was based upon the
change of address information provided by or
through the United States Postal Service National
Change of Address Program, and the voter has
failed to respond to the confirmation mailing, the
voter shall remain on the active list of voters
and shall not be required to sign the affirmation
form. In these cases, the voter's residence
address for voting purposes will be changed by the
local board to the new address as indicated by
the National Change of Address Program.
(f) Local boards
shall be required to maintain for a period of at least two (2) years a
record of all outgoing confirmation mailings,
including the reasons for the mailing of the
confirmations. Records shall be kept in a
fashion that may be determined by the state board.
SECTION 2.
Sections 17-15-28, 17-15-36 and 17-15-37 of the General Laws in Chapter
17-15 entitled "Primary Elections" are
hereby repealed.
17-15-28.
Voting hours. -- (a) The polls shall be kept open at all primary
elections
during the same hours the polls are kept open in
the respective city or town for the holding of
general elections; provided, that in the town of
Westerly, the polls shall be opened at nine o'clock
(9:00) a.m. for primary elections, special
elections, and all referenda.
(b) In the
town of Hopkinton, voting hours shall be those enumerated in section 17-18-
10.
17-15-36.
Filing of state and city nominations. -- The state board and the
local boards
in cities shall file with the secretary of state
not later than four o'clock (4:00) p.m. on the fifth
(5th) day following each primary preceding the
election, or if the fifth (5th) day falls on a Sunday
or a legal holiday, not later than four o'clock
(4:00) p.m. on the following day, or not later than
the twenty-ninth (29th) day preceding a special
election, certified copies of the certificates issued
by it pursuant to sections 17-15-30 and
17-15-31; provided, that in the event of a protest, the
boards shall be allowed an additional
forty-eight (48) hours.
17-15-37.
Filing of town nominations. -- The local boards in towns shall
file with the
town clerk not later than four o'clock (4:00)
p.m. on the fourth (4th) day following each primary
preceding the election certified copies of the certificates
issued by them pursuant to this chapter.
In the event of a protest, the local board shall
be allowed an additional forty-eight (48) hours, and
the town clerk shall file with the secretary of
state within twenty-four (24) hours thereafter,
exclusive of Sundays and holidays, certified
copies of the certificates filed with the clerk. In
towns which now by law hold elections for town
officers on a day other than the Tuesday after
the first Monday in November biennially in each
even year, or in the event of a special election,
the certified copies shall be filed with the
town clerk not later than the tenth (10th) day preceding
the election or special election.
SECTION 3. This
act shall take effect upon passage.
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LC02458
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