​The Party Party of Rhode Island is excited to announce that it has begun returning ballot access signatures to city and town halls across the state. This significant milestone marks a crucial step in the Party Party's mission to bring fresh perspectives to Rhode Island's political landscape, with an ultimate goal of winning 5% (or more) in the 2024 general election in order to become the third officially recognized state political party in Rhode Island.
 
"We are thrilled to have reached this important milestone in our journey to bring meaningful reform to Rhode Island's political landscape," said Tony Jones, founder of the Party Party of Rhode Island. "Our success in gathering signatures is a testament to the hard work of our supporters and we are excited to continue building momentum and engaging with voters across the state."
 
Over the past several weeks, dedicated supporters of the Party Party of Rhode Island have worked tirelessly to gather the required number of signatures from registered voters.
 
Once the submission of ballot access signatures is complete, the Party Party will focus on engaging with voters throughout the state.
 
The Party Party of Rhode Island is committed to listening to the concerns of Rhode Islanders and working collaboratively to address the challenges facing the state.
 
For more information, please visit www.partyparty.vote or follow us on X @PartyPartyofRI

 At of the writing of this blog, we are about one month out from the ballot access window.

If you have some free time, please keep us in mind.

Collecting even a handful of signatures is a huge help.

                                                                       ​Email - PartyPartyRI @ Gmail.com

​The Rhode Island Commerce Corporation​ has announced a new request for proposals (RFP) to increase and promote attraction and destination events across the Ocean State.
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The RFP is being funded by a $2.27 million United States Economic Development Administration (EDA) Travel, Tourism, and Outdoor Recreation Grant.  ​

“...We are empowering Rhode Island’s cities and towns, regional tourism boards, and nonprofits, to think boldly and creatively,” said Governor Dan McKee. “We look forward to seeing their proposals that will help grow our economy and create memorable experiences for all Rhode Islanders and visitors.” 
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Awarded funds can be used to promote, maintain, or improve existing attractions, or to assist in the development of new attractions, with extra consideration being given to proposals that drive tourism during the off-season months. ​

The State of Rhode Island announced last November that visitor volume increased 5.4% in 2022 to 27.7 visitors. In 2022 visitor spending totaled $5.3 billion; a 17% increase over 2021, which helps the local economy to sustain nearly 85,000 jobs. 

Awards made will generally not exceed $200,000​

To get more information or to apply, see the full RFP here

Visitors to the newly refurbished website, RILegislature.gov, are now met by a clean looking, user friendly, and functional homepage.

“Our new website is aesthetically cleaner and easier to navigate. Our focus is to improve the website and make it easier for Rhode Islanders to engage with their Legislature,” said House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi and Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio. “We think this site offers significant enhancements that will greatly benefit members of the public. This is the first major website update in decades.”

In regards to ‘Capitol TV’ (the streaming and on-demand video portion of the site) the archived broadcast content is now better organized, and will offer closed captioning.

A new ‘Getting Started’ page provides General Assembly schedules, how to find and track legislation, and various ways to participate in the legislative process.

New pages about House and Senate members make it easier to find each legislator’s news, biography, and contact information.

Also, the ‘Legislative Calendar’ section allows visitors to quickly access information on legislative sessions, committees, and commission meetings.

The State says that the website work is ongoing, with a longer-term overhaul being done in stages with additional improvements emerging throughout 2024.
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Suggestions for updating the website can me emailed to: [email protected] ​

Rhode Island State House – A Senate commission studying alternative voting methods and their potential benefits to Rhode Island has released its findings and recommendations.

The commission’s final report provides an extensive review of non-plurality and runoff voting methods, details their potential advantages and disadvantages to Rhode Island, outlines potential legal and logistical challenges to their adoption and presents methods of selecting winners in elections that commission members feel could be beneficial for Rhode Island.

 “This report will inform our legislators and the public as we consider bills to enact versions of these alternative voting methods in the upcoming session,” said Sen. Samuel D. Zurier (D-Dist. 3, Providence), chairman of the commission. “Our right to vote is fundamental to our democratic form of government, so we must proceed carefully with changes to our system. With that said, our pure plurality voting system has produced results in multi-candidate elections that have raised questions about the consistency of the outcome with the bedrock principle of majority rule. I personally plan to introduce legislation to ask the voters to amend our Constitution to clear the legal path for some of these alternatives.”

“I want to thank my fellow commission members for their contributions to our understanding of this complex and important topic, and to the Senate legal staff for presenting the Commission’s work in this comprehensive document,” said Senator Zurier. “And I want to extend a special thanks to all those who testified before the commission. Their presentations added significantly to the report’s quality and scope.”

The Special Senate Commission to Study Non-Plurality Voting Methods and Runoff Elections for General Assembly and General Officer Primaries was composed of seven members appointed by Senate President Dominick Ruggerio: Senator Zurier, Sen. Leonidas P. Raptakis (D-Dist. 33, Coventry, West Greenwich), Sen. Anthony P. DeLuca II (R-Dist. 29, Warwick), Board of Elections Executive Director Robert Rapoza, Director of Elections Kathy Placencia, Cranston Registrar/Director of Elections Nick Lima and Coventry Board of Canvassers Clerk Lori Anderson.