Every voter in Rhode Island is getting some mail this month.
State elections officials sent a letter asking all voters to review and, if necessary, update the information on state voter rolls. It’s part of a campaign to ensure the database is accurate.
Voters should receive a yellow-marked envelope that says “Official Election Mail.” If the information is inaccurate, the Rhode Island Secretary of State’s office is asking voters to update the information online or by mail. If they receive a mailer addressed to someone who does not live at the address, officials ask that current residents write “Not at this address” and return the envelope in the mail.
Who, and who is not, on state voter rolls can be a controversial topic — especially as the Trump administration attempts to exert more control over elections and deport more people. In September, Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore rejected a Trump administration request for private voter information. The U.S. Department of Justice sued Maine and Oregon over similar information.
Morning host Luis Hernandez spoke with Amore about the state’s attempts to ensure accurate voter information; whether they will result in voters losing their registration; and the Trump administration request for detailed information.
Interview highlights
On whether the elections mailer will result in people removed from state voter rolls
Gregg Amore: Federal law only allows someone to be removed from the voter rolls if they are requesting that; if they are no longer living in this state and we get that information; or if the mail is undeliverable or the person is not at that address, then they go into a holding tank, so to speak. And if they do not vote in the next two federal elections, they are removed from the voter registration list.
On whether a mass mailing requesting information could intimidate some voters, given the political climate
Amore: So this mailer allows folks to respond how they want to respond. We hope that everyone responds accordingly.
If your information is correct, leave it alone — you don’t have to do anything. If there’s something incorrect, you can go right onto our website, vote.ri.gov, punch in your ID number — your driver’s license or state ID number — and then make that adjustment on your own, or fill out the form.
We hope that people engage in this as good citizens and make sure that their information is as accurate as possible. And by the way, we’ve already received thousands of calls. Thousands of folks have gone online already and made adjustments: some as simple as changing the phone number that we have for them, some as simple as changing their email. But others are making adjustments to how their name appears compared to how it may have appeared on their license. One small difference can make a difference.
On what the Trump administration was looking for with its request for private voter information
Amore: That’s a good question: What are they looking for?
We did provide them with the Rhode Island voter list that is available to the public. We did not provide them with personally identifiable information of Rhode Island voters (like the last four digits of) social security numbers or their Rhode Island driver’s license number. And there are two reasons for that. One, we want to make sure that we protect Rhode Islanders’ personally identifiable information. And two, the request was broad. There was not a specific legal request based on an incident or elections administration failure. It was a general request. And we think that’s inappropriate.
We’re not alone. There are many secretaries of state who have denied that request, including Republican secretaries of state. So if a court order finds its way to our Elections Division to release information, we will of course do that. But until that happens or there’s a specific legal request based on evidence and information, we don’t think it’s right to do that.
On whether Amore expects the Trump administration sue the state, as it has Maine and Oregon
Amore: I don’t know. We anticipate that that’s a possibility, but I don’t know.
I do want to clarify though, that the request to appropriate (funds) for this mailing happened a month before Donald Trump was elected.
So this official election mail that’s going out to all Rhode Islanders is not related to that request at all. We requested from the governor through our budget request to him that this money be appropriated for this mailing before we knew Donald Trump would be president or before the Justice Department requested that information from us. So this is separate from that. This is just good practice in voter list maintenance.
