Legislation to put anyone who applies for assistance from a state agency automatically on the voter’s roll passed along party lines in the RI House of Representatives. Efforts from republicans to prevent automatic registration at state agencies that have computer problems were soundly defeated. This legislation should never see the light of day. It not only promotes voter fraud, it also constitutes an insurance of votes for Democrat Party candidates.

The Division of Health and Human Services (DHHS) computer system is pockmarked with problems. The Providence Journal found that some 3419 people without social security numbers were listed as receiving benefits. The state bureaucrats have no clue whether these recipients are who they say they are or whether they are receiving public assistance from other states. There is virtually no quality control to check voter eligibility for anyone who interfaces with DHHS.
It’s easy to divine why the democrats and the secretary of state and governor are gung-ho for this “automatic” registration. You don’t need to be a Mensa candidate to glean the fact that most people seeking public assistance would vote democrat, since that party is perceived as watching out for the giveaways as opposed to those dastardly republicans. The legislation is nothing more than accessing votes from folks who, voter eligible or not, would vote for democrats in elections.

The voting system continues to be broken in R.I. Last November the Providence Journal ran a story stating that 189,000 people more than the current census of eligible voters are registered to vote. While the secretary of state joined the national ERIC system, thousands still remain on the voting roster without vetting.
Watching the RI federal election unfold in November was a frightening experience. Some ballots that supposedly couldn’t be run through a broken down voting machines were brought in to the Board of Elections the next morning. Nobody impounded these ballots so anything could have happened at the local voting site pre-delivery. In fact, a bag from Speaker Nick Mattiello’s district arrived the following day. A WPRI report showed 2 people in the background at the Board of Elections feeding ballots into a machine while ballots that were “bent” were being hand copied in an adjoining room.

We also know from previous information provided by Ken Block in his study of the voting system that he sent some 125 ineligible people’s documentation to the State Board of Elections. Some firefighters and police officers voted using the station’s address even though it was a crime to do so. As of this writing the Board has done nothing.

Local voting sites had problems with authentication of voters in this last federal election. There are supposed to be rules for documenting identification but in far too many instances the people “checking” the information are politically connected to politicians who got them the job in the first place. In other words, “anything goes” and did.

Instead of promoting legislation to corrupt the voting process even further all stops should be pulled out to clean up the voting registry and the identification process at the polling places. Hopefully, the senators will balk at adding another problem of authentication by allowing state agencies who can’t even get their own eligible information correct from automatically enrolling voters.

Arlene Violet is an attorney and former Rhode Island Attorney General.