A new poll shows that more than half of Rhode Island voters want the state to continue to offer mail ballot applications that can be completed without a witness.
The poll was commissioned by Represent Us, a partner of the Rhode Island Voting Access Coalition, which includes more than a dozen groups such as the NAACP, the League of Women Voters and Common Cause of Rhode Island. It was conducted by Lincoln Park Strategies.
The findings show that 86 percent of Rhode Islanders who cast ballots last year believe that making voting easy is very important.
Among other findings: more than 40 percent of respondents say pandemic-related changes made it easier to vote in the past. Seventy-one percent favor options for early voting. Sixty-one percent support using signatures, rather than a witness or notary, to confirm voters’ identity. And 57 percent back “no excuse” mail ballot applications.
The release of the results come as GOP lawmakers in some other states are pushing efforts to tighten voting restrictions.
The coalition is trying to build support for two bills in the legislature.
One would make permanent the temporary voting changes adopted during the pandemic. The other is for a constitutional amendment enabling the General Assembly to enact same-day voter registration in the state.
The poll was based on 500 interviews conducted last month. The margin of error is 4.4 percentage points.
The coalition includes the following groups: ACLU of Rhode; Alliance of RI Southeast Asians for Education (ARISE); Brown Votes; CaneiWalk; Clean Water Action Rhode Island; College Democrats of Rhode Island ⋄ Common Cause Rhode Island; Every Vote Counts Brown University Chapter; Formerly Incarcerated Union of Rhode Island; Housing Network of Rhode Island; Latino Policy Institute at Roger Williams University; League of Women Voters of Rhode Island; NAACP Providence Branch’ National Council of Jewish Women, RI Action Team; National Federation of the Blind of Rhode Island; Planned Parenthood of Southern New England; Represent US; Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence; Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence’ Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless; Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights’ Rhode Island Democratic Women’s Caucus; Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council; Rhode Island Latino PAC; Rhode Island NOW; Rhode Island Working Families Party; The Womxn Project; United Auto Workers Region 9A; Women’s Fund of Rhode Island.
Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis@ripr.org. Follow him on Twitter @IanDon. Sign up here for his weekly RI politics and media newsletter.
