General Assembly passes four priority bills of the RI Department of State
PROVIDENCE, RI - Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore today issued the following statement in recognition of the end of the 2025 legislative session:
"Each year, it is a valuable process to identify and assess opportunities to improve the way our government provides services and fulfills its responsibilities, and to submit legislation designed to make the provision of government services more efficient and effective," said Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore. "I applaud the Rhode Island General Assembly on another successful legislative session, and I thank Speaker Shekarchi, Senate President Lawson, Governor McKee, and each of our bills' sponsors for their support this year."
The General Assembly passed three of the RI Department of State's priority bills related to elections, which will protect poll workers, implement regulations related to the rising prevalence of artificial intelligence in election communications, and streamline ballot creation and reduce waste and costs associated with ballot printing.
The first bill, S729A (Tikoian) / H5300A (Dawson) codifies language that creates criminal penalties for individuals who threaten or harass a poll worker or election official. With the passage of this law, Rhode Island joins 19 states and Washington, DC in passing laws protecting poll workers and election officials since 2020.
S816A (DiPalma) / H5872A (Baginski) regulates the use of synthetic media in election communications by requiring disclosure of the use of AI within 90 days of an election. Synthetic media, or "deepfakes," in election communications can be used to create misinformation and deprive the public of accurate information they need to make important decisions. With this bill, Rhode Island will join 25 states who have passed legislation to regulate synthetic media.
S953 (Dimitri) / H5514 (Furtado) eliminates an existing requirement to print "Mail Voter" on ballots used for early voting, meaning that the same ballot style could be used for early voting and Election Day voting moving forward. The change will reduce the likelihood of wasted printed ballots as all in-person ballot styles will be the same. The RI Department of State estimates that had this been the practice in the 2024 election cycle, the Department would have saved more than $100,000 on ballot printing.
In addition, the General Assembly passed S742 (Murray) / H5451 (Read), which modernizes the language of the Public Records Administration statute to current industry standards and streamlines and clarifies the roles and responsibilities for local government and State agencies with public records management. The State Archives and Public Records Administration are indispensable tools for upholding transparency in government as they safeguard Rhode Island's historical assets and records, which document daily government operations.
Secretary Amore also commends the passage of three additional bills related to elections and vital records.
H5709 (Serpa) / S520 (Bissaillon) enables any eligible voter to request to be placed on the permanent mail ballot application list. H5384 (Boylan) / S541 (Lauria) extends the deadline for a candidate for an election to request a recount. H5714A (Kazarian) / S1006A (Britto) enables the revision of an individual's race designation on their birth certificate, if justified. The bill was introduced at the request of an East Providence constituent whose birth certificate used offensive and inaccurate language to describe their race.
To learn more about the Rhode Island Department of State, visit sos.ri.gov.
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