PROVIDENCE, RI (WPRI) ─ Now that, for the first time ever, the state has opened polls for early voting, near-real-time technology is being used to track how votes are being cast at Rhode Island’s polling places, meaning anyone can check in on how many votes have been cast and where.
Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea’s office has announced a new data visualization dashboard which receives constantly-updated data from all the polls around the state. It’s posted on the department’s website and is being updated twice a day.
On Election Day itself, the data will be updated every hour.
”Providing frequent, clear data on voter turnout is one more way my office can show that Rhode Island’s elections are an open process that voters can absolutely trust,” Gorbea said.
voter information dashboard. (WPRI.com)
Votes are broken down by town and method ─ mail ballots, or early in-person voting at town and city halls ─ as they come in, and a separate data set will show up for Election Day in-person voting.
As of Thursday afternoon, 10,827 ballots had come in, with 903 of them through the mail. It amounted to a 1.3% turnout. No town had yet passed the milestone of 1,000 early voters.
Election Day 2020 is just under three weeks away.
Editor’s note: The link to the Secretary of State’s data has been updated as of October 27.
