We are approaching one of the first voter registration deadlines for the 2012 season. March 27 is the last day for a person who wants to run for office on a different party ticket than their party of registration to DISAFFILIATE. Example: You are currently registered as a Republican but you want to run as a Rastafarian for Town Council. You must disaffiliate from the Republican Party by March 27 and re-register as a Rastafarian.
This is just an example, because we do not have any registered Rastafarians in Charlestown although we do have 7 registered members of the Moderate Party.
The largest voting bloc in Charlestown are unaffiliated voters, also known as independents. There are 3,499 (57%). They are followed by 1,611 registered Democrats (26.4%), 985 Republicans (16.1%) and those seven Moderates (0.1%).
Anyone who is planning to run for office in 2012 should probably get in touch with your local party to discuss what running under the party banner will mean.
We'll remind of you of other key voter registration deadlines as they come closer.
Voter registration is a minor issue in Charlestown, although the new and onerous state Voter ID law is. Charlestown has 6,321 residents of voting age and, of those, 6,102 are already registered to vote. That's an astounding 96.5% registration rate. Of course, several other coastal RI communities have done much better.
Westerly, Jamestown, Block Island and Little Compton all have more people registered to vote than they have full-time residents of voting age. While I wonder at Charlestown's miraculous 96.5% registration rate, that's nothing compared to Block Island's 165%, Westerly's 116% and the 108% registration rate racked up by Little Compton and Jamestown.
Some of the excess numbers are no doubt due to dead people, or people who have moved away, who's absence from the jurisdiction escaped the attention of the Board of Registrars. But given the intensity of demand by the RI Statewide Coalition and its allies along the coast, such as the Charlestown Citizens Alliance, who want to let non-resident property owners vote, some of the excess registration may be due to voter fraud.
Ironically, the Rhode Island Voter ID bill, which was supposedly aimed at a virtually non-existent pool of undocumented immigrants who inexplicably want to draw attention to themselves by registering to vote, may end up snagging some of these carpet-bagger voters.
Anyway, if you are legally registered to vote, but do not have a government issued photo ID, you can get one for free next week here in Charlestown when the Secretary of State's mobile van comes to the Charlestown Senior Center on March 20.
