PROVIDENCE, RI -- Barely one hour after today's deadline for candidates to submit signature papers, Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis reports that he, Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, Peter Kilmartin, Gina Raimondo and U.S. Jim Langevin are the first federal or statewide candidates to have officially qualified to appear on the ballot.
Mollis, Langevin and Roberts are running for re-election. Kilmartin is a candidate for Attorney General and Raimondo is vying for General Treasurer.
Among the other federal and statewide candidates, Frank Caprio came the closest, falling just one signature short of the 1,000-signature-threshold for gubernatorial candidates.
This is only the first wave of candidates who will qualify for the ballot, according to Mollis. More will make the grade over the next few days as local boards of canvassers continue to submit official signature papers to his office for certification.
So far, Mollis has received papers from the boards in Providence, Cranston, Johnston, Foster, Tiverton, Pawtucket and Coventry.
The public can follow the daily results for every office on the Secretary of State's website. The certified signature totals for every candidate are updated every weeknight, so on most mornings voters can wake up to the most current numbers.
The figures will reflect only what local boards of canvassers have reported to Mollis, who says it is likely that many candidates have submitted signature papers that their local board has not processed yet.
State law gave candidates until today at 4 p.m. to submit the signatures of enough eligible voters to officially qualify them to appear on the ballot. The threshold ranges from 50 signatures for many municipal offices to 500 for most statewide offices to 1,000 for Governor.
More than 4,000 people filed the paperwork necessary to run for office by the June 30 deadline. That is up 40 percent compared to 2008.
The next milestone in the state’s election calendar is July 22, which is the deadline for local boards to certify candidates for municipal offices such as school committee and mayor.
The Secretary of State's office has until July 23 to certify the signatures in order for candidates for state and federal office to officially be placed on the ballot for the Sept. 14 primary and Nov. 2 election.
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