Live Primary Day coverage of Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District race

Democrat Gabe Amo takes lead in early unofficial results after polls closed

Democrat Gabe Amo catapulted to a clear lead in the primary race for Rhode Island’s open 1st Congressional District seat in early unofficial results after the polls closed Tuesday night with 33.2% of the vote to rival Aaron Regunberg’s 25.3%, with 84 of 94 polling places reporting as of 8:32 p.m.

State Rep. Sandra Cano was in third place with 14.3%. Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos was a distant fourth with 7.7%.

Gerry Leonard, the Rhode Island Republican party’s endorsed candidate, led with 75.8% of the vote to opponent Terri Flynn’s 24.2%.

The town of Little Compton had yet to return any results.

Primary Day turnout was nearly 11% with in-person, early and mail ballots combined, according to the Board of Elections.

Family steps in to boost Regunberg’s Primary Day

A Regunberg family reunion of sorts unfolded outside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School, as Aaron Regunberg, accompanied by his wife Katie Cielinski and their son Asa, strode up to greet Aaron’s family members, including his mother, Erica Regunberg, who had flown in from Chicago to support her son.

“I’ve been doing this with him since he helped Mayor [Angel] Taveras’ campaign,” Erica Regunberg said, recalling her support for her son in the former Providence mayor’s 2011 campaign.

Aaron’s 93-year-old grandfather will also be joining the family for a watch party at The Wild Colonial later Tuesday night, Erica Regunberg said, 

Despite his many runs for office, including a bid for lieutenant governor in 2018, Regunberg acknowledged he still felt some nerves. 

But 90 minutes into voting on Primary Day, he’d scored at least one vote from a conversation outside Temple Beth-El in Providence.

“He worked in the hydrogen industry, and he had some questions for me about clean energy,” Regunberg said. “I was able to show him my understanding and track record. I don’t know for sure how we voted, but I think I got that vote.”

Could CD1 Democratic primary splinter Providence’s East Side?

Much has been made about the all-powerful East Side of Providence, a neighborhood known for high turnout and influence in shaping local and state election outcomes.

Just ask Mayor Brett Smiley, who ousted two Democratic rivals in the Providence mayoral primary in 2022, in part thanks to a strong showing in the Providence neighborhood. 

“Certainly the East Side has traditionally had very high percent of voters,” Smiley said on Tuesday. A resident of the East Side himself, he also shared anecdotal support for the emphasis on the neighborhood.

“We got our doors knocked on a lot,” he said. 

Indeed, the special election has been the talk of the neighborhood according to Ridgley and Ed Biddle, who live a few blocks away from the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School where they were casting their votes Tuesday morning.

“You go to the dog park, and that’s what people are talking about,” Ed Biddle said. “Everyone is pretty involved and engaged.”

Democrats Aaron Regunberg, Sandra Cano, Gabe Amo and John Goncalves are all vying for at least a slice of the influential neighborhood, touting key endorsements from local and state officials. But it’s hardly seen as a lock for any one contender at this point, with even the Biddles split in their candidates of choice.

“We each spoke to different canvassers, and that kind of influenced our choices,” Ridgely Biddle said.

Foot traffic through the MLK Elementary School remained fairly slow through the morning hours, with 80 people casting votes in the first 90 minutes, according to Michele Moniz, the polling place moderator.

No issues reported amid a slow Primary Day in Rhode Island

From lawn signs to TV ads and dozens of debates and forums, the special congressional primary has been center stage this summer. But not everyone seems to have noticed, or cared.

As of 1 p.m. the Rhode Island Secretary of State’s office reported 11,394 votes on Election Day and an overall turnout 24,266 votes — or 6.5% of all eligible voters. (That includes early and mail-in ballots for the open seats for the 1st Congressional District and State Senate District 1 and Foster Town Council.)

Indeed, Michele Moniz, a moderator at a Providence polling place who also works as a behavioral specialist in Providence Public Schools, said she had not heard many friends or coworkers discussing the race.

“I honestly don’t think people even know it’s today,” she said. “That’s sad to me.”

Another deterrent, at least for some, is the sheer number of candidates in the race. It could be overwhelming to try and learn about that many people, said JoAnn DeBartolo, a volunteer for Ana Quezada’s campaign.

“They should have had a runoff,” Al Montanari, a volunteer for Providence Senate candidate Jake Bissaillon, chimed in. “It’s too many people.”

Providence saw 2,194 Primary Day voters and 4,463 ballots cast overall in the congressional and state senate primaries as of 1 p.m.

Pawtucket Registrar Ken McGill said things were “very slow” as he checked each of the city’s nine precincts in the morning.

“We expected that,” he said. “It’s a special election and you don’t know how many people were paying attention.

“You couldn’t miss it on TV, but it’s during the summer,” McGill continued.

Not all places in Pawtucket were slow, as the polling location at the Woodlawn Community Center saw more than 120 ballots cast as of 10:10 a.m.

“That’s far more than we’re used to,” said poll volunteer Carmen Cruz. “For us, this is a miracle.”

McGill said that bump exists at the community center because the city combined that precinct with the one at Blackstone Academy.

“Those people always turn out and vote,” he said. 

Overall, Pawtucket has seen 1,028 Election Day votes — the second-most of any municipality in the 1st Congressional District.

Federal officials observe voting in Central Falls

Central Falls has also seen a quiet Tuesday at the polls, with 112 votes as at its three polling locations as of 1 p.m. 

“Just a bit slow,” said Tomislav Markovski, the precinct clerk at Forand Manor, which had 34 votes as of 10:30 a.m.

That said, it wasn’t completely quiet in the state’s smallest city, as the Forand Manor precinct saw visits from its Board of Canvassers and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) to make sure the state follows federal voting laws.

Markovski said the DOJ is particularly concerned about accommodations for Spanish-speaking voters, who he said in the past reported that they were told they could not vote unless they spoke English.

“And none of that is happening here,” Markovski said. “Most everyone here speaks Spanish and English.”

Along with Central Falls, the DOJ is monitoring polls in Pawtucket, Providence, and Woonsocket. Should anyone spot something wrong at their polling place, they should file a complaint by calling (800) 253-3931 or by filling out a form on the DOJ’s website.

No problems were reported to the Rhode Island Board of Elections by midday, according to BOE spokesperson Chris Hunter.

Gabe Amo is doing just fine, will sleep after the election

Gabe Amo had slept for just four hours, but you wouldn’t know it from his demeanor outside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School Tuesday morning. Striding up to the East Side polling place shortly after 7:30 a.m., the former White House staffer and Pawtucket native hummed under his breath, swinging his arms as he stood waiting to greet voters.

“I woke up at 4:30, and I just wanted to run through the wall,” he said, describing his excitement for the day ahead.

As for any Election Day jitters, he had none. 

Nor was he planning to change voters’ minds as they walked in.

“It’s more about being present to the people you want to serve,” he said of the long list of campaign stops throughout the day. “A lot of people have not had the chance to meet candidates face-to-face yet.”

Sabina Matos and daughter campaign together, coordinate their Primary Day wardrobe

Usually, the hyperfixation on women politicians’ clothing choices is cause for criticism. But Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos was the first to broach the topic outside a Providence polling place Tuesday morning as she stood side-by-side with her 13-year-old daughter, Annemarie Ward, in matching light green blazers.

“It was her idea,” Matos said with a laugh, referring to Ward as “my mini-me.” 

After casting her own vote inside Providence’s DaVinci Center, the pair would travel together throughout the rest of the 1st Congressional District to talk to voters and supporters.

It’s not necessarily to convince voters to pick Matos on the ballot – most people she’d spoken with that morning had already made up their minds, she said. Instead, she stressed the grueling final stretch as one focused on the importance of voting generally, and the issues that the newly elected congressperson will be fighting for.

Despite the oppressive heat, Matos welcomed the sunny weather as a change from the rain and cold that has characterized elections in the past.

“It’s beautiful so there is no excuse not to get out and vote,” she said.

Cano makes time for voters and family at JCC polling site on Providence’s East Side

PROVIDENCE — A phone call interrupted Sen. Sandra Cano’s vigil around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday just over a yellow chalk line at the Dwares Jewish Community Center’s entrance — the line demarcating where campaigns and candidates could make one last plea to voters during the 1st Congressional District Primary.  

The constituent spoke in Spanish and asked how she could vote in the election while her regular polling location — Lyman B. Goff Middle School — was closed to accommodate the first day of classes in Pawtucket.

“Go to City Hall,” Cano told the voter in Spanish. “You can vote there until 4 p.m.”

Phone calls and campaigning for weeks culminated in this moment. Cano noted that one of her team members’ biggest contributions that day was a homemade breakfast from her mother: freshly-baked arepas — a corn flour patty popular in Colombian and Venezuelan cuisine — with cheese, eggs, and panela water (sugar water — made from a darkened Colombian sugar concentrate called panela). 

“That’s exactly what my mom did for me,” she said, adding that the breakfast was important for such a big day. “This is a great day for democracy.”

At least three other candidates made early morning trips to the polling site, including: former White House aide Gabriel Amo, Providence City Councilman John Gonçalves, and former Providence State Rep. J. Aaron Regunberg.

“I’m a little anxious and nervous in all honesty,” said Regunberg, for whom the center was his second stop of the day. “But I’m also really excited.”

Shortly after 10 a.m., Rhode Island State Treasurer James Diossa, Cano’s husband, also made an appearance along with their 8-month old son Alessandro. The two came as part of the family’s regular Tuesday trip to the center for a musical class for parents and young children called Rock-a-Baby.

“We are both public servants, and we both respect our jobs and goals,” Diossa said. “It’s very exciting to be here. But I’m here to support my partner.”

Cano, for her part, said she was happy to have a brief moment of family time on a hectic day.

“I take my baby and enjoy 45 minutes of fun and music,” she said. “Sometimes I think I have more fun than him.” 

Among those canvassing for Cano while she attended the class were Providence State Reps. Rebecca Kislak and Edith Ajello.

At least three other candidates made early morning trips to the polling site, including: former White House aide Gabriel Amo, Providence City Councilman John Gonçalves, and former Providence State Rep. J. Aaron Regunberg.

“I’m a little anxious and nervous in all honesty,” said Regunberg, for whom the center was his second stop of the day. “But I’m also really excited.”

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley also made a brief appearance at the site after voting at the Fox Point Boys and Girls Club. He declined to say who he voted for. 

“Obviously it’s an important election for Providence and Rhode Island,” Smiley said. “I’m just making the rounds to thank the volunteers from all the campaigns and poll workers.”

City of Providence spokesman Joshua Estrella said there were about 160 workers at Providence polls. Among them was Sarah Barnum, the moderator for the Dwares Center polling site.

“I don’t know what to expect today,” she said. As of 10:38 a.m., 247 votes were recorded at the site, which includes precincts 2823 and 2831. A total of 1,989 registered voters are eligible to vote there.

Consistently slow voting at Tiverton Town Hall

TIVERTON – A little over two hours after polls opened Tuesday for the special primary for the 1st Congressional District race, poll workers outnumbered the voters at the polling site at  Tiverton Town Hall:  Only eight voters had come through 9:12 a.m. 

Still, voters arrived at a consistently slow pace throughout the next half-hour. The most voters in the building at once were three, two of whom were participating in early voting on Primary Day because the polls were closed on Labor Day. State law requires early voting to continue today because of the holiday weekend.

Voters were in and out quickly, the process taking only less than 10 minutes. Things were going smoothly for the six poll workers. Voters arrived with an ID and no one had to fill out provisional ballots, said Tammy Balfour, the moderator at the Tiverton Town Hall location.

Balfour said there have been no problems with voting and did not expect any.

“It’s going to be very slow, quiet,” said Balfour. 

A total of 1,193 of the town’s 12,159 eligible registered voters are assigned to vote at Town Hall.

Only one or two people an hour have come for early voting, one poll worker estimated.

Big day and night for CD1 candidates: Where to find them Tuesday

Here’s a roundup of where to find 1st Congressional District candidates on Primary Day. Rhode Island Current contacted each campaign for comment on where and when candidates plan to vote Tuesday, where they are scheduled to be after polls close and what they think they’ll be doing in between.

• Democrats Aaron Regunberg and Gabe Amo will both be headed to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School on Providence’s East Side on Tuesday to cast their votes, though the exact times were still being finalized as of Friday afternoon.

After spending the day “bouncing around the district,” in the words of Matt DaSilva, Regunberg’s campaign manager, Regunberg will return to familiar stomping grounds to watch results come in, with a party planned at Wild Colonial Tavern on South Water Street in Providence. Regunberg rang in results for his failed 2018 bid for lieutenant governor – in which he narrowly lost to now-Gov. Dan McKee in the primary – at the same spot.

“Either we’re tempting fate to repeat itself, or we’re going to redeem the experience,” Regunberg said in an interview Friday.

His go-to drink? “Just a Gansett,” he said.

Amo, meanwhile, will be waiting for primary results at The Guild in Pawtucket, according to Matt Rauschenbach, campaign spokesman,

“He’s from Pawtucket, so I think it’s kind of important to have that geographically,” Rauschenbach said of the choice of venue. 

The Guild is also less than a mile from where Amo attended elementary and middle school, according to Rauschenbach.

• Just a quarter mile away from Amo, Sen. Sandra Cano’s campaign will be hosting its watch party at The Atrium on Main in Pawtucket Tuesday night. Cano will begin her day voting with her family at 7:30 a.m. at Slater Park Pavilion in Pawtucket. She will campaign alongside legislators and municipal officials who are backing her throughout the day, including joining Sen. Walter Felag for a noontime coffee cabinet at Delekta’s Pharmacy on Main Street in Warren. Other campaign appearances include polling sites in Pawtucket, Providence, East Providence, Cumberland and North Providence.

• Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos will await results at Chelo’s Hometown Bar & Grille on Silver Spring Street in Providence because “everyone loves Chelo’s,” said Evan England, a consultant for her campaign. Her plans for the day, including when she will cast her own ballot, were not finalized as of Friday afternoon.

• Walter Berbrick and his wife voted Friday morning in Middletown, said his campaign manager, Kate Cantwell.

The Berbrick team will be doing some last-minute campaigning throughout the district, starting in Cumberland early in the morning and making their way south. They will then monitor the results from the Incred-A-Bowl Food Co. on Broadway in East Providence at 8 p.m., Cantwell said. 

• Allen Waters said he will keep a low profile on Election Day as he has throughout the campaign, with next-to-no participation in forums or debates, and no federally reported fundraising or spending. 

“I am staying ‘low-key,’ and moving in silence a bit,” Waters said via Facebook Messenger. “I do believe that I have a chance to win (just like everyone else, and if I do, I will not be immediately available for comment. Of course, that is subject to change.”

• Former South Kingstown Rep. Spencer Dickinson said he also has no plans for Election Day, though that may change.

“The way this campaign has gone, plans are like hours away and not days,” Dickinson said, adding he intended to spend time with friends after the election was done. “I have plans for the day after, that’s for sure.”

• Providence City Councilman John Gonçalves plans to vote at 7 a.m. at his polling at the Salvation Army’s Freedom Hall on Pitman Street. He will be visiting polling sites across the district throughout the day but did not have plans for a watch party as of Monday afternoon.

• Stephanie Beauté will be voting Monday morning at North Smithfield Town Hall. Her watch party will be 6:30-9 p.m. at  Afrique d’DLounge on Federal Hill  in Providence.

• Rep. Stephen Casey will be at a watch party at The George on Washington in Providence from 7:30-10 p.m.

• Pawtucket Sen. Ana Quezada plans to vote in-person at 9 a.m. at her polling site at the West End Recreation Center on Bucklin Street in Providence. She will gather with close friends, supporters and campaign staff at a constituent’s home in South Providence after the polls close.

Republican primary

• Republican-endorsed candidate Gerry Leonard already voted early. He will have a watch party from 7:30-9 p.m. at a private residence in Jamestown, said his campaign manager Ken Naylor. Leonard, a Jamestown resident. The campaign posted an invitation on X, formerly known as Twitter, for GOP state Central Committee members, supporters, press, family and friends to RSVP. The campaign had not yet announced Leonard’s Primary Day schedule as of Monday evening.

• Republican candidate Terri Flynn also vote dearly. She will be at Middletown High School before polls open and spend part of her morning there. Flynn’s invitation-only watch party takes place at Portsmouth Publick House on Clock Tower Square after the polls close. 

Here’s what the Board of Elections is doing with your CD1 mail ballot

Nearly 60% of the more than 8,000 mail-in ballots requested for the 1st Congressional District race had been tabulated as of Friday afternoon before Labor Day weekend and will be completed during the day on Tuesday, according to the Board of Elections.

Mail ballots are tabulated once their signatures have been certified by elections staff, a process that started Tuesday, Aug. 29, said Miguel Nuñez, the deputy director for the Board of Elections

Tabulating means feeding ballots into the voting machine to scan but not count the votes. The Board of Elections is required by law to wait until 8 p.m. after the polls close to count the votes. 

For Tuesday’s special primary election, over 8,125 voters submitted applications for mail ballots. Of those, 7,844 ballots had been returned and certified by elections staff. As of 4:30 p.m. Friday Sept. 1, the board had scanned in 4,769 certified ballots.

The deadline to apply for a mail ballot was Aug. 15, the day before early voting began.

“Mail-in voting became more heavily advertised and an option during the pandemic, the only option for a lot of people,” Nuñez said.

Voters must sign the outside of the envelope containing their mail ballot. Before each envelope is opened, it is run through a machine that scans and crops the voter’s signature and barcode. If voters signed up for text updates, they will be notified that the Board of Elections has received their mail-in ballot.

The envelopes are grouped into batches of 1,000 each, said Nuñez. 

Once scanned, ballots are labeled “pending certification” by staff members trained in signature review. Then an image of each scanned signature and bar code is compared with the signature on file in the voter registration system. 

“It doesn’t have to be a perfect match, it just has to have reasonable matches and share similar characteristics,” said Nuñez. 

If there are discrepancies, then the envelope will go onto advanced review. More staff members will analyze the signature further and come to a conclusion. If the result is invalid, the envelope will be sorted and removed during the next stage.

Once a batch of the envelopes has been verified on the computer, it will be sent to the sorting machine to be separated by city and town. Invalid envelopes will be removed, and the voter will be notified their signature had discrepancies. 

During the final stage, the batches are labeled “ready for counting.” The envelopes are opened, but the ballot is facing away from the staff member to ensure confidentiality. Then, it will finally be tabulated and the vote will be recorded. 

“It’s important to make sure a ballot never skips a stage, we don’t want a ballot to be counted when the signature doesn’t match,” said Nuñez.