Should Rhode Island change its election system? The debate begins
PROVIDENCE — Should Rhode Island scrap its Republican and Democratic primaries and have runoff elections between the top two vote-getters instead?
Or is it fine that the last two elected governors won Rhode Island's top office with less than 50% of the vote — in former Gov. Lincoln Chafee's case, only 36% of the vote?
That is the question a legislative committee considered Thursday night. And there was by no means unanimity around the answer.
On the one hand, there was Joseph Paolino.
The former Providence mayor and current Democratic National Committeeman does not believe anyone should be declared the "winner" of the election if a majority vote against them.
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He headed into the hearing of the Committee on Government and Elections on House Bill 6622, sponsored by Rep. Arthur Corvese, with decades of examples of races where he believes "outcomes could have been different" if the top two vote-getters had gone on to the finals.
Among his more intriguing thoughts: Had there been runoff elections in the Providence mayoral race in 1974, he suspects "Buddy Cianci would never have existed," because he would not have had the chance to beat incumbent Mayor Joseph A. Doorley Jr. on an anti-corruption platform.
Political consultant Guy Dufault, the one-time chairman and executive director of the Rhode Island Democratic Party, told The Journal earlier that he believes the bill would fix "a broken system."
"In a contested five-way Democratic primary for Governor and no viable Republican or independent on the ballot, it is conceivable that 30% of the expected 120,000 voters in the Democratic primary will elect the next Governor," he said. "That’s 36,000 out of 715,000 registered voters, or 5% deciding our next Governor.
"That’s a broken system. My 2 cents."
But Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, who is the state's top election official and a candidate for governor, is wary of any major changes in the way Rhode Island decides elections.
In response to a Journal query last fall about the call for runoff elections, she said: changes of this magnitude "need to happen through a constitutional amendment process."
On Thursday, her legislative director, Aaron Gardner, wrote lawmakers to raise "questions regarding how this legislation would affect independent candidates and federal elections among others. We look forward to working directly with the sponsor on these issues."
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How does RI's election system work now?
The Rhode Island Constitution says: "In all elections held by the people for state, city, town, ward or district officers, the person or candidate receiving the largest number of votes cast shall be declared elected."
According John Marion, the executive director of the citizens' group Common Cause:
"Our current system, sometimes called first past the post ... was put into our Constitution in the 1880s after five consecutive gubernatorial elections failed to produce a majority winner and therefore resulted in the General Assembly picking the governor."
The Constitution does not, however, dictate how the Republican and Democratic parties conduct their own primary elections to choose nominees for the November general election.
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What change is proposed for RI elections?
Since primaries are basically political party affairs, Corvese, the state lawmaker leading the charge for Paolino's idea, believes something could be done ahead of the 2022 election without changing the state Constitution.
But the bill up for hearing on Thursday night would not take effect until Jan. 1, 2024.
Ten states already require a candidate to win a primary with a majority of the votes. When that doesn't happen, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Vermont require runoff elections under differing circumstances.
Here is how these would work under Corvese's proposal:
There would be a preliminary election "for all state and municipal offices ... to determine the candidates that qualify to run in the general election."
According to the legislation: "This newly created primary general election shall replace the traditional political party primary system."
Among the stated goals: "to reduce the field of candidates for public office for the general election."
The top two vote-getters for each of these offices would then compete against each other in the general election, regardless of their party affiliations.
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One of state GOP Chairwoman Sue Cienki's concerns is that a Republican might not make it to the general election ballot in overwhelmingly Democratic Rhode Island.
In written testimony, John McDaid of Portsmouth, the treasurer of the Portsmouth Democratic Town Committee, said: "This is a 'solution' in search of a problem.
"The risk of enormous dark-money-driven primaries that shut out and disenfranchise an entire bloc of the electorate are not worth the dubious rewards,'' wrote McDaid.
What happens next?
Thursday night's hearing was described by Corvese, a North Providence Democrat who is also secretary of the state's Democratic Party, as a starting point for discussion.
It remains unclear if the House and Senate leadership will get behind the bill and move it to a vote anytime between now and the traditional end of session at the end of June.
Asked where the leadership stood, House Spokesman Larry Berman said: "The issue will be carefully reviewed and judged on its merits."
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI considers scrapping party primaries for runoff elections
