Title 17, Title 17 Title 17

(a) The board of canvassers of any city or town at which there shall be submitted to the voters a question or questions for their approval or rejection or at which officials will be elected, shall have the authority to combine two (2) or more voting districts, when in its judgmen…

In case of the death, resignation, or permanent disability of the moderator of any town, or of the moderator or clerk of any senatorial or representative district, except in the cities of Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, Warwick, Cranston, Woonsocket, and Newport, or of any …

At least thirty-five (35) days before any election, the local board in each city shall appoint for each polling place within the city where an election is to be held a warden and clerk, not from the same political party. The appointments shall be made from a list of not less than…

Election officials shall, whenever possible, be qualified electors in the city, town, senatorial or representative district, or voting district in which they are appointed to serve, and shall severally be able to read the Constitution of the state in the English language and to w…

(a) Notwithstanding any other general law to the contrary, and in order to provide for a greater awareness of the elections process, the rights and responsibilities of voters and the importance of participating in the electoral process, as well as to provide additional workers, a…

(a) The local board of each city and town, at least thirty-five (35) days before each election, shall appoint two (2) pairs of supervisors for each polling place, each pair of which shall not be comprised of two (2) persons from the same political party. Supervisors shall, if pos…

Whenever any city or town elections occur on the same day as an election for national or state officers in any city or town, the supervisors appointed pursuant to § 17-11-13 shall be the supervisors for all of the elections.

No person shall be appointed or serve as an election official who has been convicted, found guilty, pleaded guilty or nolo contendere, or placed on a deferred or suspended sentence, or on probation, for any crime which involves moral turpitude or which constitutes a violation of …

In the event that a second, adjourned, or subsequent election is held in accordance with the provisions of this title, the same supervisors of election who acted at the first election shall act at the second or adjourned or other subsequent election, and shall have and exercise t…

If there is a telephone within a polling place, then the owner of the building in which the polling place is located shall allow use of the telephone for official business by the warden, clerk, and state inspector during the period beginning one hour before the opening of the pol…

The local boards, upon the dividing or redividing of a senatorial or representative district, shall give public notice of what senatorial or representative districts have been divided or redivided into voting districts by publication in some newspaper having a general circulation…

(a) All district clerks and district moderators in each of Rhode Island’s towns shall be appointed by the local canvassing authority of each municipality at least thirty-five (35) days before any election or district or town meeting. The appointment of the district clerks and mod…

Notwithstanding any other general law to the contrary, local boards are authorized to create a pool of election officials who shall be available to fill vacancies wherever needed. These election officials shall have the same training and duties as regular election officials, but …

The moderators and clerks shall each be able to read the Constitution of the state in the English language, and to write their names. Every person appointed as a moderator or clerk shall immediately be notified of his or her appointment and shall, within five (5) days of his or h…

(a) In case of the absence of the moderator or of the clerk of any town meeting, of a town not divided into voting districts, the town meeting may elect a moderator or clerk pro tempore, and the town clerk shall preside at the election of the moderator. (b) In case of the absence…

Party state committees shall be selected in the manner provided by statute or party rule. Any party may, by a duly enacted party rule, elect to choose the members of its party state committee pursuant to the provisions of chapter 15 of this title or by any other method agreeable …

City, town, and district committees of each political party may make rules not inconsistent with the rules of the state committee, and except as otherwise specifically provided in this chapter, the general management of the affairs of each political party in the respective cities…

(a)(1) Each town, ward, and city committee shall file with the appropriate local board the list of candidates in the town, ward, or city which have the endorsement of the committees. (2) Endorsements by town, ward, and city committees shall be signed by three (3) officers of the …

(a) In the event that the candidates elected to a district committee from a district do not equal the number of party committee members to which the district is entitled to be represented under provisions of § 17-12-7, a vacancy or vacancies exist to the extent of the difference …

(a) Any vacancy occurring in any of the offices and/or membership of city, town, or ward committees shall be filled by the remaining members of the committee. A statement of that action by any committee shall be filed as in the case of officers and members first chosen. (b) If an…

Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special act to the contrary, in the event that a ward committee or a city committee of a political party of a particular city has failed or neglected to do so, the executive committee of the city committee of that city, any duly se…

There shall be held not later than October 14 of every even year a state convention for each political party. The nominees of a party for senator and for representatives in congress, for the five (5) general offices, and for membership in the general assembly shall be delegates t…

The local boards of the several cities and towns of the state are authorized and directed to furnish for the use of any political party in this state, upon written request of the chairperson of the state central committee, acting under a resolution of the committee, voting places…

An independent candidate for governor or president of the United States in a general election shall not be entitled to establish a political party, notwithstanding that the candidate shall receive five percent (5%) of the votes cast as provided in § 17-1-2(9), unless the candidat…

Any political organization wishing to qualify as a political party by the submission of petitions under § 17-1-2(9) shall, at the time of receiving the petition forms from the board of elections, file with the board, on a form to be provided by the board, the name of the politica…

No political party may use or adopt a name which is similar to the name of another political party or which contains the name of another political party.

The state committee of a political party shall be composed as determined by the party. It shall have: (1) General oversight of all conventions of its party; (2) Power to make rules not inconsistent with law for the guidance and control of all the political committees of its party…

(a) All political party state committee rules or bylaws and any amendments to them must be filed with the state board of elections within thirty (30) days of their adoption. (b) If a political party duly adopts a rule or bylaw consistent with state law relating to or affecting th…

The state committee of a political party may delegate its authority, by rules or resolutions, to its executive committee, or any duly selected subcommittee of the executive committee, to act when the entire committee is not in session.

The state committee or the executive committee or any duly selected subcommittee of the executive committee acting under delegated authority may, when the town or district committee has failed or neglected to do so, within twenty-four (24) weekday hours of the failure, endorse an…

Any other contingency that arises pursuant to the provisions of the statutes with respect to the election of candidates for state or town office at any general, primary, or special election shall be met by the vote of the state committee, or the executive committee, or any duly s…

The party voters of each political party in each ward of each of the cities of the state shall, biennially, in every even year, at the primary election held to nominate party candidates, elect a ward committee for each ward; provided, that the ward committees in the city of Provi…

Notwithstanding the provisions of §§ 17-12-6 and 17-12-7, the town committees of the town of Johnston shall consist of twenty-five (25) members; five (5) each to be elected from the qualified electors of the five (5) council districts of the town comprising the respective candida…

The members of the several ward committees in each city of the same political party shall constitute the city committee of the political party for that city. For each of the political parties, there shall be a senatorial district committee for each senatorial district to consist …

(a) No member of a ward, town, or district committee shall hold or continue to hold membership on the ward, town, or district committee, unless that member is a qualified elector of the ward, town, or district. (b) Except as otherwise specifically provided in this chapter, ward, …

(a) All city, town, and district committees shall organize biennially in the month of January in every odd year; provided, that the city committee of the city of Providence shall organize quadrennially. (b) Each city committee organized under this section may elect not exceeding …

The chairperson of the East Providence city committee for each political party shall appoint the members of a ward committee for each of the several wards of the city of East Providence. These appointed ward committee members shall hold office until their successors shall have be…

(a) In conformity with the requirements of chapter 10 of this title relating to preliminary lists generally, preceding the next primary election of a political party prior to a general election, each local board shall, for the party, prepare and post in the local board of canvass…

Any person claiming that his or her name has been erroneously included in or omitted from a preliminary list may set up that fact in his or her affidavit and, if that person files the affidavit with the proper local board within five (5) days after the preliminary list has been p…

The same procedure and sequence shall be followed in the case of a primary for a special election, but the state board shall fix and publish the various dates and periods in the sequence.

There shall be only one list prepared for each party and the practice of separate lists prepared for women and for real, personal, and registry voters shall not be followed.

After the first meeting held to correct and add to the voting lists as required by this chapter, the local boards shall immediately furnish five (5) complete copies of the printed lists to the town or city chairperson of each political party. The local boards shall furnish certif…

During the last consecutive Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in June in the even years and during the thirty-ninth (39th) and fortieth (40th) days preceding a primary election for a special election for state or local office, or for an election for state or local office regularly s…

Whenever any person seeks elective office, that person shall not have been a member of a political party other than the declared political party within ninety (90) days of the filing of their declaration of candidacy, except for a special election for federal office, or for an el…

(a) No person shall be eligible to file a declaration of candidacy as an independent candidate nor shall a person be eligible to be a candidate or be eligible to be voted for unless the person shall, at the time of filing the declaration, be qualified to vote in the election with…

Every person who obtains signatures of voters upon nomination papers shall under oath sign the following statement: “I, _______________________________________, of the city/town of _______________________________________, under oath, make affidavit and say that the signers of the…