Rhode Island shifts its primary to Wednesday, Sept. 9, easing a Labor Day poll setup crunch

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Island’s primary elections will now be held on Wednesday, Sept. 9, moving it back from the typical Tuesday election day because it fell too close to Labor Day.

Gov. Dan McKee, a Democrat, signed off on the change earlier this week. The primary election had been scheduled for Sept. 8, which is the day after the holiday weekend.

State and local officials had requested the change after raising concerns about having enough time to set up polls for voters. However, under the legislation enacted, the filing deadlines will remain the same.

“We have to set up over 400 polling places around the state on the day before the election,” Nick Lima, the registrar and director of elections for the city of Cranston, told lawmakers at a hearing in January. “That’s very difficult to do on a holiday because many of our polls are schools, social halls and churches.”

It’s not unusual for states to change their election day. Lawmakers in neighboring Massachusetts changed the state’s 2026 primary election day from Sept. 15 to Sept. 1, arguing that doing so will help improve voter turnout.

Only four states hold their primary elections in September: Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Delaware, which has the latest primary date in the U.S., taking place this year on Sept. 15.

Legislation seeking to move up Delaware’s primary election by several months has been introduced in the statehouse, but previous attempts to do so have stalled.