PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The House Oversight Committee has issued a draft report seeking to address some of the problems with long wait times and confusion at polling places during last year's election.
The report, which was released Thursday night and discussed by the committee, recommends the state Board of Elections establish minimum standards for polling locations, require "greeters" at the doors of high volume voting locations, develop a plan for recruiting and training "high quality" poll workers, and increase the number of both poll workers and trained technicians to service ballot counting machines on Election Day.
The report, which comes out of a series of committee hearings focused on the election, also recommends cities and towns send out "voter information handbooks" to better prepare voters before Election Day, especially if there will be local questions on the ballots.
It suggests that the Secretary of State, which is Rhode Island's other elections overseer, consider redesigning ballots to make them less confusing and that the General Assembly support funding for new voting machines.
The committee will finalize and vote to approve the report next Thursday, April 11.
VIEW THE DRAFT REPORT: Elections Oversight report 2013.doc