Prepare to vote

After years of being an afterthought, Rhode Island is actually going to have hotly contested presidential primary battles Tuesday on both the Democratic and Republican sides. Some leading candidates stumped in our little state over the weekend — clear evidence that they care about the decisions voters will make here — and large numbers of Rhode Islanders are expected to turn out at the polls.

 That’s all for the good, but we urge citizens to do a little bit of preparation so that voting may be as easy as possible:

 -Find out where you are voting ahead of time by going to the secretary of state’s website here: vote.ri.gov

Because of past experience with low turnout in ho-hum primaries, the Rhode Island Board of Elections decided back in January to open just 144 of the state’s 419 polling places tomorrow. As John Marion of Common Cause notes, that means many voters could be confused, because many will be voting in different places from where they usually cast ballots.

 Cities and towns are calling in more poll workers and setting up more voting booths at each location to try to prevent what happened last month in Arizona, where people waited hours to vote. Rhode Island should have no problem handling the turnout, said state Elections Director Robert Rapoza.

 -Bring a photo I.D. such as a driver’s license.

 This is the first presidential primary where Rhode Island voters will be required to show a photo I.D. before casting a ballot, under a new law designed to prevent fraud. Bring your license or one of many other accepted forms of identification: a U.S. passport; an I.D. card issued by an educational institution in the United States; a U.S. military identification card; an I.D. card issued by the U.S. or the State of Rhode Island, such as a Rhode Island Public Transit Authority bus pass; a government-issued medical card; or a Rhode Island Voter I.D. card.

If you have that ready to present to a poll worker, lines should move much more quickly for everybody.

- Know your ballot.

 Democrats will vote for a presidential candidate, as well as up to eight delegates. Republicans will vote for a presidential candidate, not more than three delegates from their congressional district, and not more than 10 statewide delegates. You may view sample ballots at vote.ri.gov.

 Given this year’s hard-fought presidential campaign, and the important issues confronting America, Tuesday’s primary election is one many Rhode Islanders will not want to miss. That is good, because we will be playing a bigger role than usual in helping to decide the future of our country.