Mollis Encourages Cranston East Students to Register to Vote

Secretary of State Ralph A. Mollis made an appearance at Cranston High School East on Wednesday morning to speak to students about the importance of registering to vote.

He said that it’s unacceptable that only three out of 10 18-year-olds currently vote in Rhode Island. He provided each of the approximately 40 students that had gathered in Cranston East’s media room with voter registration papers and encouraged them to register and to vote.

The students were juniors and were attending the event as part of their history class. Mollis informed them that they can pre-register to vote when they’re 17-years-old and as soon as they turn 18 they will be able to vote in primary and general elections.

“When you read the paper and realize that people are shedding blood and giving their lives in order to change things in their government,”Mollis said, “and you realize that we can change things with a phone call, through a meeting or through a simple vote, if that doesn’t motivate you to register to vote and to vote then nothing will.”

In honor of Women’s history month, he brought along the original bill that was passed by the Rhode Island General Assembly in 1920 that gave women the right to vote. Rhode Island passed the bill before the country approved the 19^th Amendment, which gave women universal suffrage in the United States.

“I bring this because 91 years ago, women were fighting for their right to vote,” Mollis said “Eighty-seven years later, a woman was running for President.”

He pointed to the document and said, “this is history and there’s a lot more that we can change.”

Mollis also brought the papers that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton filed with the state to run for President. He said that without people standing up for what they believe in and voting for the people they respect, dynamic changes like women’s suffrage might have never happened.

“Someone peacefully refused to take no for an answer and did something about it,” Mollis said. “You can do that too.”

Students listened intently during Mollis’s 30-minute presentation and then peppered him with questions afterwards on graduation requirements, the master lever that allows individuals to vote an entire party line with one check box, whether it was appropriate that Governor Lincoln Chafee garnered less than 50 percent of the vote and still assumed office and on the controversial topic of immigration.

Immigration seemed to touch a nerve with Mollis who said he was a grandson of immigrants from Portugal and Italy.

“We need to find a way to appropriately give [illegal immigrants] legal status,” said Mollis, who added that it’s a complicated situation because any child born in the United States automatically becomes a citizen even if their parents are illegal immigrants.

“You can’t send parents back and leave the children,” Mollis said. “We need to address this issue fast because it’s dividing our country.”

Students gathered in the media center said that they enjoyed the opportunity to hear the Secretary of State speak.

“It’s nice to be able to talk to someone high up in government, it’s not an opportunity we have a lot,” said Cranston East Junior Adrienne Gendron as her friends Claire Golde and Kristen Bachand nodded in agreement. “Your history teacher can tell you what these people think, but having someone in front of you makes me feel more involved.”

All three girls said that they did not know how to register to vote before Mollis came in to speak to them.

Superintendent Peter Nero as well as School Committee Chairman Andrea Iannazzi also attended the event and welcomed the Secretary of State to Cranston.

Mollis plans on holding similar events at every Rhode Island high school and college leading up to the 2012 elections.