Voter Pre-Registration in Rhode Island

The Rhode Island state legislature has passed a bill that allows 16 and 17-year-olds to "pre-register" to vote, making them automatically eligible to vote once they turn 18--for the second time. The very same bill passed in June of 2006, but Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri vetoed the bill. FairVote, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization which advocates fraud-free voter participation, contends that the passage of the bill will prevent bureaucratic sluggishness since voter registration applications would be spread out over time rather than received in a glut right before a voter registration deadline prior to an election. The life of the bill will most likely be determined by the end of this week.