Fewer People Expected to Vote By Mail in Rhode Island

A surprisingly lower number of people expected to vote by mail in Rhode Island is leading to a rush to find more polling places.

"We are in a big scramble," said Pawtucket Registrar Ken McGill.

Pawtucket is down five polling places from what the city is supposed to have. Places like a church, an elderly housing complex, and a private school gym have backed out, McGill said.

"They have fears of COVID and I understand that," McGill told NBC 10 Monday.

The shortage of polling places, about 130 fewer than needed across the state, has been known for a while. But the Rhode Island Board of Elections is now putting out the call to find more facilities to fill in the void.

"Believe me, I have scoured the city and I have looked at every building as a potential polling place. And there is nothing out there that, nothing that we're not already using," McGill said.

So, why the mad dash just a month before election day?

"Because the mail in ballots has not panned out to what we expected," said Miguel Nunez, Rhode Island Board of Elections Deputy director of elections.

The Board of Elections had been anticipating a high number of people about 400,000, to vote by mail because of COVID. Now they think the mail-in ballot count will be about half that. And they had been planning to allow fewer polling places than normal because fewer people were expected to show up in person. But not now.

"We actually expect turnout in person at the polling places to be significantly higher," Nunez told NBC 10.

"I'm totally surprised," said Warwick's Director of Elections Dotty McCarthy of the lower than expected requests for mail-in ballots.

"With the controversy in the news about the mail, with the post office, people just don't feel secure about mail-in ballots," McCarthy told NBC 10.

The fall back plan if there are not enough polling locations for each precinct would be to combine some in one location.

"However, we do prefer for sites to be in distinct locations because we feel that it's easier for voters to understand," Nunez said.

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