R.I. Primary Primer: Just In Case You Were Wondering…
Some have observed that the running totals available on the R.I. Secretary of State’s website seemingly indicate low numbers towards presidential candidates “qualifying for ballot placement” (QBP) in Rhode Island [1000 valid signatures are required]. There are several very good reasons for that. For one thing, like many things Rhode Island, the process is needlessly decentralized, inefficient, and just plain slow.
Instead of having a central location to turn in signatures, those who gathered them were required to turn them into 39 different local boards of canvassers in their respective cities and towns. There is a significant lag time between when those boards “validate” the names, addresses, and signatures submitted, and when they are then “qualified” (aka “certified”) by the R.I. Secretary of State’s office.
“Validation” is nothing more than looking up the name on the voter list to see if someone is currently a registered voter. They are not actually confirming whether that person was truly the one signing the nomination papers — merely that the name matches that of a registered voter (of course, no funny business would never happen in Rhode Island!). Needless to say, this process is labor intensive and time consuming.
Once a canvassing board “validates” a certain number of names on each sheet, they send the “certified” nomination papers to the Secretary of State’s office, to then be “qualified.” Once “qualified”, the numbers are then updated on the Secretary of State’s website as often as they are able. Although there are differences in terminology, for all practical purposes, “validation” and “qualification” are generally synonymous, and the numbers should be very close to each other. For example, a difference might exist if someone is listed as a registered voter in two R.I. cities, thereby causing a signature which was “validated” by a local board to be disqualified by the Secretary of State’s office. At least on the GOP side, I know that all the major candidates had well in excess of 1000 signatures “validated.” In a few cases, several thousand each.
P.S. One reason why Barack Obama’s numbers look great at present on their website, is that he got in most of his required signatures during the first weekend that the papers were made available to be signed, and turned them in quickly, thus allowing the canvassing employees to begin the “validiation” and “qualification” process earlier for him. It certainly does not mean that because he’s the only candidate listed that has a “QBP” listed next to his name, that he’ll be the only candidate on the ballot!
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Thanks to Will Ricci for his outline of the validation and certification process. We will not know for sure which presidential candidates made the primary ballot until Jan. 10, but you can follow their progress on the Secretary of State’s website. Candidates must have collected the signatures of at least 1,000 eligible Rhode Island voters in order to run in the state’s March 4 presidential primary. The candidates had until Dec. 26 to submit the signatures to the board of canvassers of the city or town in which voters said they were registered. Municipalities have until Jan. 10 to validate the signatures. Those records then must be certified by the Secretary of State’s office before the candidates are officially on R.I.’s presidential primary ballot. Rhode Islanders can track the progress of the 20 candidates who are vying for a spot on the ballot by visiting http://www.sec.state.ri.us/candidates/presidential/. The website site lists the number of validated signatures for each candidate as well as the number of signatures that have been certified toward the 1,000-signature threshold. The next milestone in the state’s presidential primary calendar is Feb. 1, when Secretary of State Mollis will hold a public lottery at the State House to determine the order in which the candidates will appear on the Democratic and Republican ballots.