by Katherine Gregg
PROVIDENCE — The campaign has begun anew to make permanent a series of pandemic-era moves that allowed early voting and mail-ballot voting without the need for a witnesses or a notary.
The “Let RI Vote” campaign centers on two reintroduced pieces of legislation backed by a coalition of unions and advocacy groups, ranging from the AARP to the AFL-CIO to the Rhode Island Latino PAC to the Providence branch of the NAACP.
The bills would: allow a voter to apply for a mail ballot online; waive the requirement that a mail ballot be filled out and signed in the presence of two witnesses or a notary; and allow nursing home residents to opt in to automatically receive an application for a mail ballot.
It would also allow early in-person voting 20 days ahead of an election.
The matching bills introduced in the House by Majority Whip Katherine Kazarian, and in the Senate by Sen. Dawn Euer, were born out of Rhode Island's 2020, mid-pandemic attempt to make voting easier.
In 2020 that year's general election, 62% of Rhode Islanders voted early in person or by mail, compared to 38% at a polling place on Election Day.