This article originally appeared in the Providence Journal on August 16, 2023 and was written by Katherine Gregg.  

Below is John Marion’s comment on early voting, which starts 20 days before the election in Rhode Island.

But state lawmakers took no action to shorten the early voting period. Advocates, such as John Marion, the executive director of Common Cause RI, continue to stand by the 20-days of early voting.

“For decades Rhode Island was an outlier with the overwhelming majority of voters casting their ballot at polling places on Election Day. That put unnecessary stress on our system and did not provide voters with choices, unlike in most states, both red and blue, which allow voters to vote early,” Marion said Wednesday.

An added benefit in his eyes: early voting allows “elections administrators to catch mistakes early–such as the incorrect Spanish-language ballots in 2022–and fix them before most voters are casting their ballots.

“If a Rhode Island voter wants to wait until Election Day and watch all of the machinations of the campaign play out, they have every right to under our system. But if they want to vote at the earliest opportunity to support their preferred candidate, they can do that too,” he said. 

To read the full article, click here.