Voting Rights and Electoral Reform

There is little hope of the Supreme Court overturning Citizens United, the disastrous decision that opened the floodgates to money in politics by allowing unlimited corporate super PAC contributions. However, new research from the Center for American Progress shows that states can circumvent it by redefining corporate powers. We should take the lead on doing that here in Rhode Island.

In addition, we should expand our public matching funds program, which currently only covers candidates for statewide offices, to lower barriers to running for office and curb the influence of megadonors and corporate interests.

In 2011, the General Assembly passed one of the harshest voter ID laws in the nation, even though research shows that restrictions like ours suppress turnout—especially in low-income communities and communities of color—without reducing the (already extremely low) incidence of voter fraud.

In 2013, as Judiciary Chair, Rep. Ajello swapped out a bill that would have repealed the 2011 voter ID law for an even more restrictive version just before its committee hearing. The ACLU warned that, under the substitute bill “many other forms of photo and non-photo ID that would have been allowable no longer [would] be.” The problems with this replacement were so severe that the full House took the extraordinary step of voting to send the bill back to committee instead of passing it. (Bills are almost never brought to the floor unless they are sure to pass.)

13 years later, voter ID is still on the books. When Rep. Ajello had her chance to end it, she chose instead to fight for a more restrictive version. I won’t make the same choice.

I also fully support the push for a constitutional amendment to allow same-day voter registration, which we already use for presidential elections, for all offices.

I’ve been one of the leaders in the fight for ranked choice voting (RCV) in Rhode Island for years. RCV is a simple but powerful upgrade to the way we vote that ensures that candidates win majority support, increases voter participation, and reorients campaigns around constructive, issue-based conversations. It’s been used successfully across the country, in statewide elections in Maine and Alaska and municipalities from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to New York City.

I support the Maine model, which consists of ranked choice primary elections for parties to select consensus nominees and then ranked choice general elections to mitigate the risks of third-party spoilers.

The Republican Supreme Court is likely to strike down what remains of the federal Voting Rights Act, which would remove protections related to language accessibility, fair representation, and more. We need to codify these protections into state law and expand upon them by guaranteeing voters the right to sue if their rights are violated (a private right to action), eliminating economic qualifications for voter eligibility in “special districts” (like the one Rep. Ajello voted to impose in 2017), and banning harmful practices such as prison gerrymandering.