In a 5-to-2 vote yesterday, the Rhode Island Board of Elections decided to review the over 1,000 signatures on the nomination forms of a candidate in the CD-1 Special Election. 

Statement released immediately following the vote from John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island: 

“The Board made the right decision today to review the signatures. They made that decision in the right way — after publicly debating the trade offs they face. We won’t know how to fix this process moving forward unless we know the scope of the problem. Today’s vote starts us on a path to determine what went wrong, and also what went right. 

“While it’s unusual, if not unprecedented, to review signatures after the ballot has been finalized, it’s not unusual to review the performance of various parts of election administration after the fact for purposes of performance improvement. The Board does that after every election with respect to things like the voting machines, lines at the polls, and the like.”