Rhode Islanders log on for polling locations
- By Dan Caterinicchia, Dan Caterinicchia
- Mar 01, 2000
The Rhode Island Secretary of State's office has established an online database
that allows state residents to find the nearest polling location for the
state's upcoming presidential primary.
The database went online last week and is accessible through the state's
World Wide Web site, www.state.ri.us. It is the third year the Secretary
of State's office has offered the service for local and national elections,
and citizens are using the service more every year, said Peter Kerwin, the
agency's director of communications.
"We put the service up two or three weeks before the event and send
out press releases to the local media to let the citizens know it's there,"
Kerwin said. "We've gotten a lot of e-mails and calls saying how much they
like it. And it's especially helpful because there's different polling places
for different elections. For example, we won't open everything for a primary
based on the expected turnout, which differs for a statewide election."
Residents who want to find the polling location nearest their home for
the March 7 presidential primary simply enter the street name and town into
the office's voter registration database, and the polling location closest
to that address is returned, Kerwin said.
"Usually people aren't thinking ahead and the day before, or the day
of the election, they don't know where to go," he said. "But now they know
they can go online or call our office to find the nearest [polling] location."