from Chris Barnett @ the Secretary of State’s Office

Today at 5 p.m. in the State Room at the State House, Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis will use a borrowed lottery machine to determine the order in which the Democrat and Republican presidential candidates will appear on the ballot in the state’s March 4 primary. The public is invited.

In a scene familiar to Rhode Islanders who watch the state’s daily lottery numbers selected on television, candidates will be assigned specially calibrated, white plastic balls. A representative from the R.I. Lottery will operate the machine. After each ball floats to the top of the machine, Mollis will announce the name of the candidate.

On the Democratic side, the candidates are Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Hugh Cort, Mike Huckabee, Alan Keyes, John McCain, Ron Paul and Mitt Romney are expected to compete for position on the Republican ballot.

The Secretary of State’s office will also use the lottery machine to determine ballot position for the 184 Rhode Islanders who are competing for the right to attend the Democratic or Republican National Convention as a delegate. more »

 From Chris Barnett @ the Secretary of State’s Office

You know that one of Secretary Mollis’ priorities since taking office
has been a push to get younger voters to the polls in 2008. We plan to
hold voter-registration drives at every Rhode Island high school and
college leading up to the 2008 elections. With Rhode Island’s March 4
presidential primary little more than a month away, today we visited
Central High School in Providence. In addition to registering students,
we staged a mock presidential primary. Obama and McCain were the
winners. Channel 6 was there to cover it. Here is a link to one of the
stories.

Barack Obama and John McCain won this morning’s mock presidential
primary at Central High School in Providence. Using an official voting
machine and ballots we prepared, 197 students voted. Here are the results:

DEMOCRATS
Obama - 78
Clinton - 57
Edwards - 27
Kucinich - 1

REPUBLICANS
McCain - 20
Romney - 6
Huckabee - 4
Giuliani - 2
Hunter - 1
Thompson - 1

 Don’t Forget that Saturday Feb. 2nd is the last day to register to vote in the Rhode Island Presidential Primary on March 4th.

Chris Barnett from the Secretary of State’s Office would like you to know:

Rhode Islanders will have a lot of choices when it comes to the state’s March 4 presidential primary. Ten Democrats and 10 Republicans filed Statements of Intent to compete for their party’s nomination by today’s 4 p.m. deadline.

The Republicans are Hugh Cort, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Alan Keyes, John McCain, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Tom Tancredo and Fred Thompson.

The Democrats are Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Ray Stebbins and Rosemary Turner.

This is the first time since 1952 that there isn’t an incumbent president or vice president in the race. That makes the 2008 primary more wide open than usual.

With 20 candidates in the mix, we should see a bump in turnout. After all, with this many names on the ballot, there ought be no shortage of candidates for Rhode Islanders to get excited about.

There is more info on the RI Secretary of State website.

 Chris Barnett from the Secretary of State’s Office wants you to know:

The first 10 days of December hold critical deadlines for presidential candidates and Rhode
Islanders who plan to run for delegate to one of the national political
conventions. For example, Dec. 10 is a crucial date for would-be
delegates. Your readers can find more details on the Secretary State website.