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« Update: RAF jets pass on State House flyover today | Today | Tonight: Start gearing up for July 4 with Bristol concert » June 23, 2008Carcieri again vetoes minimum sentencing, voting billsPROVIDENCE – Governor Carcieri has once again vetoed bills to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for drug-dealers and allow 16- and 17-year-olds to “pre-register’’ to vote. With a flood of bills headed his way from the General Assembly session that ended on Saturday night, the veto messages that Carcieri issued today on these two bills raise all the same issues he raised before when he voted earlier versions of the same bills. The drug sentencing bill introduced in the House by Rep. Joseph Almeida, D-Providence, and in the Senate by Sen. Harold Metts, D-Providence, would not only eliminate the current 10-year minimum sentence, it would also lower the maximum allowable prison term -- life in prison -- for people convicted of manufacturing, selling or possessing “with the intent to manufacture or distribute’’ illegal drugs from life in prison to 20 years. The argument: The Reagan-era law has ruined lives, and contributed to the disproportionate number of minorities behind bars. “Whether intended or not,’’ the Republican Carcieri said, “the practical import of this legislation is that the General Assembly is directing the judiciary to ease up on sentences for serious drug offenses.’’ As to why he again vetoed the so-called teen pre-registration bills introduced in the House by Rep. Edwin Pacheco, D-Burrillville, and Sen. Rhoda Perry, D-Providence, he said state law already allows 17-year-olds to register if they will be 18 by the next election. He said the law has worked well and in his opinion “it creates no impediment, nor dissuades anyone eligible to participate in the political system from doing so.’’ -- Katherine Gregg, Journal State House bureau Worse, he said there could be counter-productive if the state, which has invested time and money cleaning up the state’s voter rolls, was now “forced to add thousands of names – all people ineligible to vote.’’ His argument: “Adding people to a voter list who are not eligible to vote defeats the purpose of having the list in the first place.’’ In a press release hailing the passage again this year of the pre-registration bill, the sponsors anticipated Carcieri’s objections. In it, both Pacheco and Perry said they didn’t see “any reason pre-registration would be any more susceptible to fraud or confusion that regular registration.’’ They said it would make it more likely that students “who might be away at college when they turn 18’’ would return to vote. They also argued that giving youngsters a “personal link to the voting process at a younger age would increase the likelihood that they will vote now and in the future.’’ Posted by Andrea Panciera CommentsNancy Green | June 24, 2008 3:37 PM link Post a commentPlease be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published. Name and email are required; email address will not publish. |
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ProJo 9 to 5 News Blog
Oct 2005 - March 2006
it just makes me recall that the Governor's wife compared some high school students to terrorists, and the Governor refused to speak to them.
I hope the General Assembly overrides the vetoes on both these bills.