At our current pace of signature collections, we anticipate having a minimum of 30,000 signatures by Monday, August 3. At this number, we can be reasonably assured of having collected enough signatures to satisfy the requirement of 23,589 certified signatures to qualify as a political party in Rhode Island.

In preparation for our submittal, today we reached out to the Rhode Island Board of Elections to confirm where we are supposed to bring our signature sheets.

Rhode Island General Law 17-1-2 (9) iii is clear (to me) on where these signature sheets are to go. The relevant part of this law is inserted below (underlines and bold type highlights were inserted by me):

(iii) any political organization which, on petition forms provided to the chairperson of the organization by the state board of elections, obtains the signatures and addresses of that number of registered qualified voters equal to five percent (5%) of the entire vote cast in the state for governor or president in the immediately preceding general election. All the signatures must be obtained no earlier than January 1 of the year in which the political organization desires to place a candidate or candidates on any ballot as a "party" candidate. If the political organization wishes to select its nominees in a primary election, the petitions, bearing the requisite number of valid signatures, shall be presented to the appropriate local boards of canvassers no later than June 1 of the same year. If the petitions are validated by the local boards as containing the requisite number of valid signatures, the political organization shall be deemed to be a political party for all elections held during the year and may select its nominees in a primary election. If the political organization does not wish to select its nominees in a primary election, then the petitions need not be returned to local boards of canvassers until August 1 of the same year.

In my conversations with Robert Rapoza of the Board of Elections, I stated my opinion that the above law clearly states that the MPRI is to turn in our sheets to each local Board of Canvassers. Mr. Rapoza countered that in his opinion, the above language can be interpreted to say that the MPRI is to turn in our signature sheets to the RI Board of Elections.

Now I'm not an attorney, but it would seem to me that Mr. Rapoza's interpretation would stand a better chance of being valid if the words 'RI Board of Elections' were placed anywhere in the same sentence as the words 'presented', 'validated' or 'returned'.

Being keenly aware of the problems encountered by the State GOP last year when 5 candidates for the General Assembly did not make the ballot because their nomination papers were not presented to the proper authority, the MPRI
desires the most expeditious and legally correct processing of our signature petition forms as possible.

As has been the case since we filed our lawsuit this past February, time is critically of the essence. Rhode Island campaign finance law places calendar year limits on contributions by individuals to political parties. To be most effective at our fund raising, we desire those individuals who can maximize their contributions to the Party to do so twice: once in 2009 and again in 2010. Delays in the granting of our party status endanger our ability to maximize our fund raising.

Our hope and great expectation is that our signatures be expeditiously certified by each local Board of Canvassers and that party status be conferred on the Moderate Party as soon as we meet our signature threshold number: 23,589.

I really can't understand why the RI Board of Elections would choose to make a tortuous interpretation of a law that is pretty straight forward. I also can't fathom a good reason why the RI Board of Elections desires to handle our sheets prior to submittal to the local Boards of Canvassers.

Hopefully this situation resolves itself quickly and we can move on with meeting the 12th highest signature burden in the country.


Much more to come soon.