Rhode Island
Of the 45 states whose legislatures hold sessions in 2010, 27 of them have adjourned for the year, and 5 more will wrap up before the end of the month. Of the more than 80 bills dealing with the initiative and referendum process in various states, 51 of them would have reduced citizens’ initiative rights. Thanks to the work of activists in our coalitions, only 3 bills reducing citizen’s rights have passed and become law.
The power of initiative and referendum has been withheld from Rhode Islanders for over a century. Voters advised the legislature to provide for an initiative process, but that request was ignored by the state legislature. You can read the history of the battle in Rhode Island here.
Under a bill in the current legislature, Rhode Island voters could be asked to decide whether to change the state’s official name. The official name is ‘Rhode Island and Providence Plantations’. Some residents argue that the term ‘Plantations’ invokes images of slavery and want that part dropped from the name. Lawmakers note that ‘plantation’ referred to any farm, slaveholding or not, at the time the state was founded.
Rhode Island voters would face a referendum on full-scale casino gambling under a bill being debated by a State senate committee.
You have no statewide Initiative & Referendum rights.
Poll:
See the results of a poll on support for statewide initiative & referendum here.
Grade: D
Click here to view Rhode Island’s individual report in Of the People, By the People, For the People: A 2010 Report Card on Statewide Voter Initiative Rights.
By 1917, Rhode Island was one of only four states in the Union where
the state legislature had completely blocked initiative and referendum for
both the state and local governments. Like Pennsylvania, Rhode Island
was controlled from the Civil War to the Great Depression by a
Republican Party machine allied with the state’s big industrialists, in this
case textile mill owners.
Article VI
Section 1. Constitution supreme law of the state.
This Constitution shall be the supreme law of the state, and any law
inconsistent therewith shall be void. The general assembly shall pass all
laws necessary to carry this Constitution into effect.