The Rhode Island House of Representatives has passed a bill that would make it automatic for independent voters to disaffiliate from a political party after they cast a ballot in the primary.
Currently, a voter who is not affiliated with any political party is automatically registered as being affiliated with that party when they choose to vote in a party primary election. Under the new law, sponsored by state Rep. Patricia Serpa, D-West Warwick, voters would be able to avoid being affiliated with a party by filling out a form.
“Most voters in Rhode Island are unaffiliated with any political party, but often choose to vote in party primaries, whether it be Democrat or Republican,” Serpa said in a statement.
According to Serpa, about 46 percent of Rhode Island voters choose to remain unaffiliated. She said the new law would also help prevent voters who vote through the mail from being mistakenly affiliated with a party.
“As voter history suggests, most of those voters would prefer to remain unaffiliated after the primary is over,” she said. “This bill would allow those unaffiliated voters to remain unaffiliated without having to fill out a form after the election. That not only makes it easier for the voters, but for election officials who spend hundreds of hours after every election cycle processing thousands of these forms.”
The bill now moves to the state Senate.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) assisted a What’sUpNewp journalist with the reporting included in this story.
