A Cry for Help

You probably didn't notice, but election day is next Tuesday. Well, the primary election, at least. You'll want to read David Grenier's post about why primary voting is so important. We like to focus on the presidential race, but in many cases local officials have a greater impact on your daily life.

Rhode Island's primary is this coming Tuesday, September 14th. The most intriguing local race to watch on that day will be to see whether the Great Union Disaffiliation will be successful in ousting Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey. There's really no excuse for a Cranston resident not to vote on that one. Another primary race that bears watching is Pawtucket's 59th RI House district, where J. Patrick O'Neill is looking to unseat former speaker John Harwood. Mr. O'Neill left a comment for everyone here.

Closer to (my) home, a non-partisan primary for Warwick school committee will be held next Tuesday. This means that no matter which party primary* you choose to vote in you can still vote for school committee. There are seven candidates for two spots, so the top four vote getters will square off in November. I mention this mostly because the mother of one of my friends from high school is running. I'll vouch for Lucille Mota-Costa being exactly the kind of school committee member we need. She's always been concerned with quality education for as long as I've known her, and she doesn't put up with any crap. If you're voting in Warwick, I heartily urge you to check off her name. Here's a list of the other candidates.

If DG's post didn't convince you of the importance of primary voting, think about this: your vote counts even more because primaries have lower turnout. In 2002, the statewide turnout for the primary races was under 23%. In the Republican primary in Cranston, only 1,879 out of 36,092 eligible voters (5.2%) went to the polls. You can check your town here.

As for the technical stuff: you have to be already registered in the district/town/ward that you want to vote it. It's too late to register for the primaries (still time for the general election, though!!) To vote in a Republican primary you must be a registered Republican or an unaffiliated voter. Registered Democrats and unaffiliated voters can vote in a Democratic primary, and registered Greens and UVs can vote in the Green primary.

I'll remind everyone again, of course, but pencil in some time next Tuesday to get your vote on. To paraphrase the Bush twins, it's, like, important and stuff.

*I called the Warwick Board of Canvassers to confirm this, and I was told that there wasn't really any contested primaries going on, since the guy challenging Jim Langevin had withdrawn (I can't find any confirmation of this, though). I asked about the Green Party mayoral primary, and "oh yeah, there's that one, too."

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 8th, 2004 at 3:15 pm and is filed under Local Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.