Opt-Out Voter Registration Makes it out of the Judiciary Committee!

On May 24, the House Committee on the Judiciary passed H5702 Sub A . This bill allows voters to be registered to vote automatically or to update their addresses automatically when they apply for a driver’s license, unless they opt out.
The League of Women Voters of RI has been lobbying for this action since it was first introduced at the behest of the RI Secretary of State two years ago.
TAKE ACTION TODAY: Call the offices of your state representative and of House Speaker Matiello, to urge a floor vote in the House. Also call your state senator and Erin Prata Lynch, the chair of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate, to urge a positive vote on S770, the matching Senate bill. It has to be voted out of the Senate Judiciary committee with a positive recommendation before it can be heard on the floor of the Senate. All this has to happen quickly before the end of the legislative session, so we all need to act NOW. If you don’t know who your state representative or senator is, you can find out at https://vote.sos.ri.gov/

Lobby Day March 16

Join The League of Women Voters RI and Common Cause RI  at the State House for Lobby Day 2016

 

We will meet on the 2nd Floor of the State House at 3pm. Everyone will be provided with a  briefing with talking points and materials to prepare us to meet with our  legislators. Please contact Vimala, at vimala@commoncauseri.org to sign up or for more information.

 

Legislative Update March 7

LWVRI Weekly Legislative Alert

No League Testimony Scheduled; Report on Past Week’s

Hearings—Voting and Elections, Open Meetings

Coming Up: Gun Safety Bills

As of Friday, March 4, there were no bills on which the League will testify scheduled for hearings on March 8 and 9, and the Committee calendars had not been posted for March 10. When the calendar is posted, if there are items of interest to the League for which we will need your support, we will post more information and send a supplemental Call to Action. Meanwhile, here’s the report for the past week.

On Tuesday, March 1, LWVRI President Jane Koster,  the League’s chief lobbyist, presented testimony in support of five bills. The first four related to voting and elections.

•  H 7416, which would prohibit state vendors from making political contributions to candidates that if elected, would have the authority to award state contracts to them.
•  H 7146, which would prevent a person from being a candidate for public office who owes fines, fees, or penalties of ($2,000) or more for campaign finance violations, unless that person is currently compliant with a state board-approved repayment agreement.   
•  S 2513 which would establish a system for the electronic registration of voters. 
•  S 2358, which would create a procedure for in-person early voting for all general, primary and special elections.

All were held for further study except for S 2513, the electronic legislation of voters, which was recommended for passage by the Senate Judiciary Committee.  The companion bill in the house, H 7024, was already passed.

The fifth bill, H 7601, concerned open meetings. This bill would exclude  weekends and state holidays from the calculation of the 48-hour public notice requirement for a meeting of a public body. It was also held for further study.

This past week, March 1-3, two new bills of interest the League related to gun safety to were introduced in the house and referred to the House Judiciary Committee.  Both were submitted at the request of the Attorney General.  They are:

• H 7850, which would make it unlawful to carry a rifle or shotgun in a vehicle or on one's person, visible or concealed, except at one's residence, place of business or land. This bill was sponsored by Representatives Diaz, Shekarchi, Almeida, and Maldonado
• H 7583, which would make it illegal for any person, entity, or dealer to sell, loan, transfer or acquire a firearm from any person, entity or dealer with the intent to avoid the application/disclosure process . This bill was sponsored by Johnston and Canario.

These bills have not yet been scheduled for a hearing. 

To read these images of our database of current bills in the RI legislature of interest to the League, click on them and choose "original size."  Please read text at end of images. 

Above are images of  our updated database (as of April 22) of  bills introduced so far that are of interest to the league. 



Most bills should have been submitted by now to the 2014 legislature.  To date, none of interest to the LWVRI has gone farther than a first committee hearing. Since the committee chairs determine what bills will proceed further, it is very important League Members write, call or email their legislators who are on the committee handling the bill, to urge support for the bills they and the League favor.  This is the most important thing YOU can do to support the League advocacy agenda this year.  When you communicate with your legislator be sure to identify yourself as her or his constituent as well as a League member.

League Priorities this year include:

Restoring the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee over the Legislature, and open meetings and records.

Supporting elimination of voting for all a party's candidates by making one mark on a ballot (master lever), early voting, improved voting machines that provide a paper copy of ballots to aid in recounts if necessary, elimination of voter id, etc.

Supporting merit selection for judges

Counting prisoners as living in their home districts, not in the prison, in order to avoid skewing the census counts used for redistricting and federal funding.

Promoting gun safety

Promoting reproductive justice

Promoting a sustainable, safe environment

Protecting civil liberties

Promoting education as a right of RI citizens, and promoting  public education funding that provides equality of opportunity through a system of taxation that is sufficient equitable, flexible, and coordinated among the different levels of government.

Above are images of  our updated database (as of April 22) of  bills introduced so far that are of interest to the league. 

The League Advocacy committee will post new bills we are following that have been introduced in the legislature on this blog on a weekly basis.  The spreadsheet is organized to correspond with our advocacy subcommittees.  The last column initials indicate which subcommittee (see earlier blog) the bills fall under.  ed=education; env= environment; gov= good government, selection of magistrates; gun+ gun safety and control; open/eth=open records/open meetings & ethics; rj=reproductive justice; vot=voting reforms

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