Unaffiliated voters will decide Rhode Island’s pick

STATE STATS

Voter makeup: The state has about 720,000 registered voters, according to data from the Rhode Island Department of State. About 38 percent of voters in the state are registered Democrats, with 14 percent registered as Republicans and 48 percent with no affiliation.

Baby boomers (born 1946-1964) showed up in the greatest numbers in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. Generation X voters (born 1965-1980) have consistently made up a quarter of the vote in the last two elections, with millennials (born 1981-1996) also contributing about 20 percent of the vote in 2016 and 2020. Generation Z voters (born in 1997 or later) only made up about 7 percent of the vote in the 2020 election, but 59 percent of the registered Gen Z voters turned out in the 2020 election, potentially signaling a high level of political engagement. Only 49 percent of registered millennial voters in the state voted in 2020.

Voting: Rhode Island law requires photo identification to vote with a regular ballot at the polls. But state officials cannot turn away Rhode Islanders who do not have a photo ID. Instead, they provide a provisional ballot. If the voter’s signature on the ballot is later found to match the voter’s signature on file, the vote will be counted. Voters can register in-person, by mail, and online by Oct. 6.

Rhode Island allows same-day registration for presidential elections only. Mail-in voting is allowed, and voters must request their general election absentee ballot by Oct. 15. Rhode Islanders will be able to vote early from Oct. 16 to the day before Election Day. They may also request emergency absentee ballots during the same period.

Gov. Dan McKee signed the Let RI Vote Act in 2022, allowing voters to request absentee and emergency mail-in ballots online without giving a reason. The law implemented a multitiered verification process that no longer requires voters to have mail ballots notarized or signed by witnesses. The measure also allowed nursing home residents to receive mail-in ballots automatically, gave voters more time when requesting braille ballots, and required the establishment of a permanent multilingual voter hotline.

PRESIDENTIAL

President Joe Biden received just over 80 percent of votes in the April 2 Democratic presidential primary. However, the state’s Democratic delegates agreed to shift that support to Vice President Kamala Harris in a 34-1 virtual vote in late July.

Former President Donald Trump won nearly 84 percent support in the state’s Republican primary. In 2020, Biden won the state’s four electoral votes with 59 percent of votes to Trump’s nearly 39 percent. Rhode Island has not chosen a Republican presidential candidate since 1984.

SENATE

Incumbent Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, 68, won the Democratic Senate nomination in a landslide vote. Whitehouse has held his seat since 2007 and is known for backing policies on climate change, environmental conservation, and healthcare funding. He also advocates for reforming the criminal and juvenile justice systems and overhauling federal education policy. Whitehouse won over 60 percent of the vote in his 2012 and 2018 reelection bids.

The senator will face off against GOP state Rep. Patricia Morgan, 74, who won about 65 percent of her party’s primary vote. Morgan has served in the state’s General Assembly for just over a decade and regularly advocated for removing the state’s tax on wine, liquor, and cars and reforming regulatory and estate taxes. As a former financial adviser, she also advocates for removing Social Security from the state’s income taxes and cracking down on food stamp fraud.

U.S. HOUSE

In Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District, incumbent Democratic candidate Rep. Gabriel Amo, 36, is running against GOP candidate Allen Waters, 68. Amo won his seat in a 2023 special election with about 65 percent of constituents’ votes. He has co-sponsored several measures on gun safety regulations, along with legislation to lower the price of home ownership and improve healthcare for seniors.

Waters lost his 2020 bid for Senate and his 2022 campaign for the 1st Congressional District seat, running for both as a Republican. However, Waters switched sides in 2023 and ran in the state’s special election primary as a Democrat. Now running as a Republican again, he supports private gun ownership, parental rights, and rooting out corruption in the government. He cites declining education as one of the biggest problems in modern America. Waters also signed a pledge to support an aggressive rollback on taxes, including repealing income taxes and dissolving the IRS.

Waters only won about 36 percent of the general election vote in his failed 2022 run. His previous opponent, Rep. David N. Cicilline, held the seat for over a decade, while Amo has served in the lower chamber for less than a year. About 45 percent of 1st District voters have no registered political affiliation, with 43 percent registered as Democrats and 12 percent as Republicans.

In the 2nd Congressional District, incumbent Rep. Seth Magaziner, 41, will represent Democrats against GOP candidate Steven Corvi, 56. Magaziner sponsored congressional measures to increase the rights of workers, lower drug costs for seniors, and stop oil and gas drilling on the outer continental shelf of New England. Corvi supports a merit-based economy, transparency from the government, and a slow shift toward clean energy. He also supports Israel in its fight against Hamas and describes abortion as a personal decision that the government should not fund.

Magaziner won his seat in 2022 by a slim 50.4 percent. Since half of 2nd District voters have no registered political affiliation, there’s a chance Corvi could unseat the incumbent. The other half of the district is 34 percent registered Democrats and 16 percent registered Republicans.

BALLOT MEASURES

Question 1: Rhode Islanders will vote whether to allow a group of delegates and representatives to amend the state’s constitution. Rhode Island’s last constitutional convention took place in 1986. The question does not specify changes the convention would discuss and adds that no changes would be made without electors voting for them.

Question 2: Voters will decide whether to allocate about $160 million in bonds to the state’s two public universities. Just over $87 million would be used to construct a biomedical science building at the University of Rhode Island. The remaining $73 million would go to renovating a building for Rhode Island College’s cybersecurity and emerging technologies program.

Question 3: Voters will approve or deny $120 million in bonds to fund programs to increase housing affordability and promote home ownership. If approved, $80 million would go to affordable housing, $20 million to home ownership programs, about $15 million to acquiring and revitalizing existing buildings, $4 million for housing-related infrastructure, and $1 million for municipal planning costs. The proposed projects would be started by 2026 and completed by 2030, according to the state’s voter information guide.

Question 4: This proposal would approve $53 million in general obligation bonds for improving the environment and public recreational facilities. Projects include restoring river and stream floodplains, protecting farmland and open spaces, cleaning contamination sites, and improving forest health.

Question 5: The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts administers grants for improvements to arts and culture facilities, including performance centers, museums, and cultural art centers throughout the state. This initiative would on allocating $10 million in bonds to fund the government’s grant program for arts and economy.

Dig deeper:

Read my report about a lawsuit that Rhode Island and other states filed against the Food and Drug Administration, saying the agency placed too many restrictions on the abortion drug mifepristone.

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