All You Need To Know About The Rhode Island
PRESIDENTIAL PREFERENCE PRIMARY
Tuesday, April 24th, 2012
Rhode Islanders finally get their chance to vote in a Presidential Primary Tomorrow (Tuesday).
You will vote for 1 candidate for President, and up to 8 candidates for Delegate to the GOP national convention (held in Tampa August 27 to 30).
You will have 6 choices for President:
MITT ROMNEY
RICK SANTORUM
NEWT GINGRICH
RON PAUL
BUDDY ROEMER
UNCOMMITTED
You will have 35 choices for Delegate, if you are in Congressional District 1, or 47 choices for Delegate if you are in Congressional District 2. All Delegate candidates are listed under the Presidential candidate that they have committed to.
You can vote for any 8 Delegate candidates, anywhere on the ballot, no matter who you vote for for President.
Rhode Island is a “Proportional Representation” state. Any Presidential candidate, who gets at least 15 percent of the vote statewide, will get a proportional share of the 16 Delegates and 16 Alternates to be elected (8 Delegates and 8 Alternates in each Congressional District). (R.I. will also have 3 super-Delegates, the 3 National Committee people, who are not on the ballot tomorrow).
We expect a small turnout tomorrow (as little as 15,000 voters statewide), because the news media has told everyone that the race is already over and your vote does not matter. That means that as little as 2,250 votes for a Presidential candidate will be enough to win Delegates for him.
So if your first choice is Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich or Ron Paul; you should still go vote for them tomorrow, in order to elect Delegates who will promote their issues at the national convention.
WHERE TO VOTE
You will NOT necessarily be voting at your usual polling place tomorrow. (A lot of polling places are being combined, due to the expected low turnout). Go to the Secretary of State’s web site, to determine where you vote:
sos.ri.gov/vic
Enter your name, date of birth, and city or town; and you will get the location of your polling place.
SAMPLE BALLOT
The same web site listed above will also allow you to click on a link for “View Ballot”. You will get a .pdf file, that you can print out.
We strongly suggest that you print this out, and fill it out before you go to vote. The ballot is confusing, and the Delegate candidates are not listed in alphabetical order. They are in an order determined by lottery. So it will make things much easier for you, if you fill out this sample ballot in advance, and bring it with you.


Posts
Vote To Let Only Republicans Vote In GOP Primaries
My biggest concern is having our Party’s Primaries hijacked by Democrats and people who do not wish us well, and who do not even intend to vote for the GOP candidate in the November election.
If you were at the last R.I. GOP meeting in October, you recall that I talked about people who voted in, and decided, our last hotly-contested Primary in 2006. I had sent E-Mails to about 1,000 new Republicans, who voted in that Primary, and who had filled out their E-Mail address on their voter registration card. I welcomed them to the Republican Party. The response I received was appalling.
Usually, when I send out E-Mails like this, I get replies expressing delight that the Republican Party is alive and well, and asking to hear more from the R.I. GOP. But this time, I received HUNDREDS of angry replies, from people outraged that anyone would think they were a Republican.
Like the man who said that the time between when he voted in the GOP Primary, and when he immediately filled out a disaffiliation paper, was “THE WORST 30 SECONDS OF MY LIFE”.
Or the person who wrote “You are sadly mistaken. I am NOT a Republican voter. The Republican Party has abandoned America. Shame on you.”
Or the man who replied, “I will vote for Democrats and support them financially. I’ll vote for Sheldon Whitehouse simply because he is a Democrat.”
Or the woman who said, “I am not a Republican Voter. I am outraged at this tactic of the Republican Party. Take me off your mailing list.”
Or the Cranston resident who wrote, “I am a Democrat. I only voted in the last 2 Primary elections as Republican to vote against Laffey.”
I certainly do not want to discourage any Republican-leaning citizen from voting in a GOP Primary, and from voting for Republicans in November. But I do not want to see our Party’s candidates chosen by Democrats, who want bad things to happen to us. Based on my personal observations, I believe this is the greater danger.
And so, I urge you to vote to APPROVE the resolution at Wednesday’s meeting.
Regards,
DAVE TALAN
DaveTalan [at] aol [dot] com