Projo Politics Blog

Journal photo / Kris Craig
John Leo, foreground, and Jason Siegel were among those signing disaffiliation papers after voting today at the Jewish Community Center in Providence.

WARWICK -- A desktop paper cutter at the Board of Canvassers office in City Hall was busy early this afternoon, as an employee quickly sliced 8.5-by-11-inch sheets of paper in half.

Pile after pile, the sheets rose on the front counter -- about 8 inches high -- ready for action. The purpose? The creation of perhaps a couple thousand extra voter-disaffiliation forms, plus roughly cut carbon-copy paper.

The new forms aren’t as neat as the official voter-disaffiliation forms from the state, with the yellow carbon copies glued to the top sheet.

But they’ll do the job of gathering the information a voter writes in for the Board of Canvassers and provide a copy for voters to take home.

City Board of Canvassers clerk Joseph E. Gallucci said about a third of Warwick’s 34 polling locations were running low on the forms.

He said polling locations are finding that “more people than not” are choosing a ballot for the primary of their choice and then disaffiliating from that party once they’ve voted.

U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., who's facing a tough primary battle today, was formerly mayor of Warwick.

Polling locations in Cranston -- home of Chafee challenger and Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey -- also reported running low on disaffilation forms.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

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