According to recently released data from the Secretary of State for Rhode Island, well over 180,000 voter records have been expelled from formal voter rolls.
Nellie Gorbea recently issued an update regarding the maintenance of ongoing voter rolls on Friday, including nearly 200,000 expulsions. The Rhode Island Secretary of State remarked that the voter rolls can now be classified as “the cleanest they’ve been in years,” with a total of 182,018 out of date voter records have been removed since she assumed office in 2015.
At this point in time, Rhode Island has approximately 713,000 active registered voters on the state voter rolls, who are eligible to vote in upcoming elections. In addition, a further 89,000 voter records have bee labeled as inactive. According to Gorbea, labeling or marking voter records as “inactive” constitutes the first step in a multi-year process of removing outdated registrations under the purview of federal law.
Gorbea also observed that her team, along with local boards of canvassers, tend to conduct maintenance of voter lists on daily basis, evaluating whether or not changes or removal proceedings may be necessary. Moreover, these entities work alongside election officials and the health department in order to assure voter accuracy and promote electoral integrity.
In December, the elections division intends to send mailings to roughly 25,000 voters who may have relocated to a different address, per data released from the postal service. These mailings will subsequently prompt voters to update their information on the voter registry if necessary, which is necessary for maintaining accurate records.
In 2015, the Secretary of State also enrolled Rhode Island in the Electronic Registration Information Center. The Center is a partnership between multiple states, which utilizes secure data matching processes in order to ensure the efficiency and accuracy of the participating states’ voter registration lists.
