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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 12h

That last part feels more like the smells…

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Well if you ever do, know I won't take it personally! You seem genuinely interested in making things better too

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

It's okay if it was pointed at me. I get your point that it wasn't that great in the first place. When the open data movement came and went in Rhode Island we didn't end up with as much as I'd wished at the time.

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

One of the points I was trying to make is that it's not a compliance tool because there is no requirement that it exist in the first place

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

A great discussion of the Rhode Island Constitution in here. Happy Constitution Day to all who celebrate!

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Federal law requires retention of certain records for 22 months, and the letter arrived right before that would have expired for the November 2024 election

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

So apparently a frisbee golf course is *the* hot topic here.

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

And now the League of Women Voters candidate forum for Portsmouth Town Council (to observe before I moderate on next week in Newport).

Dais for Portsmouth Town Council candidate forum

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Ward 9 is done. Two additional votes for Pichardo who wins by 11 votes.

Results of recount in Ward 9 in Providence for Juan Pichardo

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The ballots that are undervotes in the contest being recounted are hand examined to make sure the voter didn’t indicate their intent but the scanner didn’t pick it up.

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

No change in Ward 4 which was simply rereading the memory cards. Ward 9 isn’t done yet.

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Should have mentioned that I’ve spent my day so far observing the recounts here at the Board of Elections.

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

You can see the signatures they’re comparing on screens here. It’s fascinating.

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Wump, wump, they are waiting for the deadline for military and overseas ballots to come in by 4 pm so they’re going to recess until 5 pm. In the meantime they are reviewing 30 deficient mail ballots.

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

They do a good job with the YouTube channel.

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

My first post on BlueSky was something like "I'm only here for Sam Howard" and that still proves true

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

So I developed a guide in 2019 based off of Colorado's voter intent regulations. They're still using that. On my "to do" list is drafting a comprehensive voter intent regulation and then petitioning the Board of Elections to adopt it. That project is partially finished.

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

If the machine rejects a ballot for whatever reason (overvote, paper is creased, etc.) there is hand adjudication. Typically that's not a lot of ballots, but it's likely going to be more than two in that council race!

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

There is always that concern. For instance, if a voter circles their choice, but it doesn't intersect the target area, the scanner isn't going to pick it up. Intent is clear there. But of course humans will make subjective judgements about marks on ballots. That's the tradeoff.

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

All optical scanners have a measure of how many pixels in the target area need to be full in order to count a vote. I can't remember what those numbers are for Rhode Island's machines, but I'm fairly certain they're the same for the high-speed tabulators and the precinct tabulators

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I believe they'll run the ballots through the high speed scanners (DS 850) for the recount, rather than feeding them through the polling place scanners (DS 200 or 300).

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Yes, you have to request one, and it has to be on the proper form which must be notarized. Deadline is at 4 pm today. All the details are here: elections.ri.gov/sites/g/file...

elections.ri.gov

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Thanks. I saw that they posted a meeting at 10:30 for making the determination, but didn't see anything for the actual recounts.

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Did you happen to ask when they recounts are going to be held?

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I decided many years ago to stop paying good money to be frustrated. But seriously, congratulations, that's so cool. And sounds like it was not a fluke, but because you hit a great shot which is even better.

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

If the Democratic nominees for all the statewide races prevail in November, would this be the first time in RI history that three of the five statewide offices are held by women?

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Interesting. It was surprising, in a good way, that they were there to do genuine observation yesterday. And thanks for being a poll worker!

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

It would seem so because we see recounts every election cycle for small races, but rarely for the big ones. That said, there are a lot more small races.

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I used Wards 3 and 12 from (I think) 2022 which were 28 and 13 votes respectively. I also use it to point out the disparity in turnout because Ward 3 had almost six times the turnout

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Mary, are you referring to the DOJ observers? Were you a poll worker in Pawtucket?

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I am quite literally replacing the graphic in my PowerPoint as we speak

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

New "every vote matters" example just dropped

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I'm undefeated in predicting that a big contest will result in a recount

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

DOJ monitors are routine. There were some in New Bedford last week. I don't think they deserve the benefit of the doubt under the current administration, but we didn't get any reports of problems with them today. newbedfordlight.org/federal-elec...

newbedfordlight.org

Federal election monitors watched New Bedford polls - The New Bedford Light

Four federal elections observers made their way through different polling locations across New Bedford. Also stationed at the precincts on Election Day: Observers to observe the feds.

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

They did not offer an explanation beyond the fact that it's become harder to find poll workers in recent elections

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

At their 6 pm meeting the Board of Elections reported that there were 640 poll workers. So closer to one in six than one in five

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Reposted by John Marion

Ted Nesi @tednesi.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Also, h/t to the team at the @risecstate.bsky.social office which built this voter turnout tracker - a great way to help us track Election Day trends in real time

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Virtually every cycle something goes wrong in Pawtucket.

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John Marion @johnmarion.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

"Who do you think will win [fill in the race]?" "Will we set a turnout record?" "There was a problem with a polling place in Pawtucket"

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