Rules and Regulations for Polling Place Conduct

Regulation Authority:

R.I.G.L. 17-15-26, 17-19-21, 17-19-22, 17-19-23, 17-19-24, 17-19-27, 17-19-49, 17-23-15 and 17-23-17

Purpose and Reason:

This rule is proposed for adoption by the Board of Elections to establish guidelines and procedures to ensure the orderly conduct of elections at the polling place, and enforce the provisions of Rhode Island General Law § 17-15-26, 17-19-21, 17-19-22, 17-19-23, 17-19-24, 17-19-27, 17-19-49, 17-23-15 and 17-23-17. As a result of comments received, the following changes were made that were not originally part of the proposed text: The entire second part of the draft was removed. This proposed rule and regulation originally included two versions, one with buttons allowed at the polling place, and one without. During the open meeting the Board of Elections decided to allow buttons at the polling place, so the version that banned buttons at the polling place was removed from the text. In Section 2 in definition of "Watcher", party official was changed to party representative. In Section 5D the phrase "and for good cause" was added to better reflect the law on challenging the identity of the voter at the poll.