Election Reform Bills

The ACLU testified on a variety of election-related bills, some of which we supported and some of which we did not. On the positive side were important pieces of legislation which would have allowed candidates to use campaign funds to finance childcare (H 5736, S 323), would have repealed Rhode Island’s voter ID law because of the obstacles it creates to the right to vote (S 339), and would have established a meaningful process for early voting (H 5292, S 631). We also supported a piece of legislation which would have subjected the Board of Elections to the rule-making provisions of the Administrative Procedures Act, H 5698, introduced by Representative Joseph Shekarchi. These bills all ultimately died.