What a great way to celebrate the state’s first Day of Reason. The Rhode Island House voted 71-0 to abolish straight-ticket voting, the so-called master lever, a relic of the old voting machines and machine politics. It has no real defenders, only pols and special interest groups who benefit from maintaining our unhealthy, one-party, status …
The continued existence of the “master lever” is indefensible. Proof of this came earlier this week when no one came out to defend it. One side came out in force, filling the hearing room and arguing that there’s no good reason for Rhode Island to be one of 14 states that lets voters make all …
Rhode Island is one of only 15 states left that still offers the option of party-line voting, and the only state in the northeast. We now have an opportunity to tell the general assembly that we want an end to this anachronistic vestige of party machine politics. At least in the old days when it …
Legislation to eliminate the so-called “master lever” from Rhode Island ballots will get its first public hearing this afternoon, Wednesday, when the House Judiciary Committee meets at the Rise in Room 313 at the State House. State law currently requires ballots to include the straight-party option, which enables voters to vote for all the candidates …
When not gambling on college hoops, suave Dose honcho, Dave Segal, is actually a grown-up with a job representing the good people of District 2 in the General Assembly. He is also a thoughtful and persuasive writer and has a fine piece in this morning’s Providence Journal suggesting that the master lever/straight ticket voting issue …
It will just take a minute longer, and you’ll be forced to give it some thought. Writing in today’s Providence Journal, Edward Achorn comes out in support of a bipartisan bill that would put an end to Rhode Island’s indefensible master lever. Representatives Michael Marcello (D.-Scituate) and Brian Newberry (R.-North Smithfield) submitted a bill this …