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State News Release |
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| RI Board of Elections Promises to Take Action on Toste Campaign's Election Day Grievances. |
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Jeff Toste Senate Campaign Jan. 12, 2005 Media Contact: Campaign Presents Evidence of Voter Misinformation and Arbitrary Enforcement of RI Elections Law at Board of Elections Hearing RI Board of Elections chair Roger Begin told the Jeff Toste State Senate Campaign tonight that he would take steps to improve Election Day practices in Rhode Island. Toste, the Green Party candidate for State Senate in District 5 who won nearly 1/3 of the vote in November against 10-year incumbent Frank T. Caprio, presented a series of complaints at tonight's Board of Elections hearing. According to Toste, volunteers for his campaign witnessed and received reports from voters of a number of election-law violations at the polls on Election Day. Several volunteers from the Toste campaign provided testimony of problems they witnessed at the polls, including: a poll worker telling voters that registered Democrats had to vote Democrat; poll workers filling out ballots for non-English speaking voters without filing the necessary affidavits; a poll-station warden refusing to allow a Toste campaign volunteer to remain in a polling station as a poll checker; and poll workers calling in police to intimidate Toste campaign volunteers who were already standing the required 50 feet from the entrance of the Mount Pleasant pollingstation. "We were surprised and disappointed by the problems we encountered on Election Day," said Toste in his presentation to the board. "We're continuing to press this issue because we want to make sure that all candidates encounter a level playing field at the polls." The campaign also presented video footage from Election Day, which included images of Caprio campaigning in the doorway of the Dominica Manor polling station. "Clearly, the law was not evenly applied on Election Day," said Toste. "And all we asked of our opponent --who is a lawyer -- was to be fair and respect the law." Toste also claimed that the campaign had encountered difficulties in making the Board of Elections aware of the problems that campaign volunteers experienced at the polls. At an earlier hearing at the end of November, the board refused to hear the campaign's evidence. "We have contacted the RI Board of Elections, the RI Department of Justice, the RI Secretary of State, the RI Attorney General's Office, and the ACLU," said Toste. "No one seems to know who is accountable for what happens at the polls." Begin and RI Board of Elections executive director George Bowen said they would present the Toste campaign's evidence to the other members of the board, who were not present at tonight's hearing. They said the board would decide after further review of the evidence how to best address the problems the campaign experienced. "We're very happy we were heard tonight," said Toste. "And we'll be even happier when we see some results." Among the recommendations the Toste campaign made to
the Board of Elections were: recruitment and training of poll workers
should occur several months before Election Day so that all poll workers
could receive training administered by the RI Secretary of State;
poll-worker duties and responsibilities should be clearly defined in a
book made available to the public before Election Day; law enforcement
officers should receive training on RI election laws; and the state
should develop a system for efficiently addressing Election Day problems
and violations. |
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State News Release |
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