Legislation: batch D — NY OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TX UT

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

legislation/us/states/ri/2026/hb-7494.md

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+---
+type: "Bill"
+title: "AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTIONS -- MAIL BALLOTS"
+description: "Requires the board of elections to establish a secure area for the public observation of mail ballot processing and require the mail ballot voter’s signature be compared to the signature on file within the state central voter registration system."
+jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
+legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
+session: "2026"
+identifier: "HB 7494"
+citation: "Rhode Island HB 7494 (2026)"
+classification: ["bill"]
+subjects: []
+status: "enacted"
+primary_sponsors: ["Brien", "Casimiro", "Dawson", "Kazarian", "Kennedy", "Shanley", "Solomon"]
+version_count: 1
+action_count: 11
+vote_count: 1
+first_action: "2026-02-04"
+last_action: "2026-06-23"
+source: "openstates"
+source_identifier: "ocd-bill/10a335fd-473e-486f-9b8b-abf94335d619"
+source_url: "https://status.rilegislature.gov/"
+source_hash: "d9d5abdcb1fa79894ef4dc193300b3570649e6c6c5abdb520050512f5186d217"
+vintage: "2026-07-01"
+source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
+retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
+confidence: "reported"
+tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ri"]
+---
+
+# Rhode Island HB 7494 (2026) — AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTIONS -- MAIL BALLOTS
+
+Requires the board of elections to establish a secure area for the public observation of mail ballot processing and require the mail ballot voter’s signature be compared to the signature on file within the state central voter registration system.
+
+## Version chain
+
+The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.
+
+1. **7494** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilegislature.gov/BillText/BillText26/HouseText26/H7494.pdf)
+
+## Votes
+
+- PASSAGE — **69–0** (pass) · lower
+
+## Sponsors
+
+- Brien — primary (person)
+- Casimiro — primary (person)
+- Dawson — primary (person)
+- Kazarian — primary (person)
+- Kennedy — primary (person)
+- Shanley — primary (person)
+- Solomon — primary (person)
+
+## Timeline
+
+The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.
+
+- **2026-02-04** 02/04/2026 Introduced, referred to House State Government & Elections `introduction, referral-committee`
+- **2026-03-06** 03/06/2026 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (03/10/2026)
+- **2026-03-10** 03/10/2026 Committee recommended measure be held for further study `committee-failure`
+- **2026-05-22** 05/22/2026 Scheduled for consideration (05/28/2026)
+- **2026-05-28** 05/28/2026 Committee recommends passage `committee-passage-favorable`
+- **2026-05-29** 05/29/2026 Placed on House Calendar (06/03/2026) `reading-3`
+- **2026-06-03** 06/03/2026 House read and passed `passage`
+- **2026-06-05** 06/05/2026 Placed on the Senate Consent Calendar (06/09/2026) `reading-3`
+- **2026-06-09** 06/09/2026 Senate passed in concurrence `passage`
+- **2026-06-18** 06/18/2026 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
+- **2026-06-23** 06/23/2026 Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
+
+## Source
+
+OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/10a335fd-473e-486f-9b8b-abf94335d619`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).
+