Rhode Island Primary Polls 2016: New England State Will Be Tuesday’s Biggest Mystery, Partially Due To Limited Voting Centers

In terms of recent 2016 Rhode Island primary polls, voters have little go off of when it comes to projecting how New England’s smallest state will fare in Tuesday’s primaries.

While Rhode Island offers a small pool of 33 delegates for Republicans and 19 delegates for Democrats, the state has garnered more primary attention in 2016 than perhaps ever before. Like other oft-forgotten primaries that generally come too late in the game to hold any sway, Rhode Island will have a rare moment to shine at the ballot box on Tuesday. All of the major presidential candidates have set up shop in the state.

However, the fruits of that campaigning are still uncertain. Brown University has released just one poll leading up the Rhode Island primary, and that was nearly two months ago. Since then, the dynamic of the race may have changed significantly; though the University are anticipated to release one more update before Tuesday.

Republican Rhode Island Primary Polls

For Republicans, it’s especially difficult to say how the Rhode Island primary will fall. When the last poll was taken in February, Marco Rubio was still in the race. He took second place behind Donald Trump, who won with 43 percent of the vote. The shifting of Marco’s 25-percent share is more likely to redistribute itself to Ted Cruz and John Kasich, who came in at 10 and 14 percent, respectively.

Still, Donald has polled well in the other New England primaries that surround Rhode Island. As the demographics are strikingly similar, Rhode Island could easily be his fifth win on Tuesday. The state is particularly similar to Massachusetts, where Trump nearly walked away with 50 percent of the vote, James Morone, director of the A. Alfred Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy at Brown University, told the Wall Street Journal.

“It will be interesting to see how things change between the Massachusetts election and Rhode Island. I think that will be a very good gauge of how the candidates are rising and falling.”

Democratic Rhode Island Primary Polls

Using the same dated poll from Brown University, Hillary Clinton might be the best bet for the Rhode Island Democratic primary. Hillary came out 8 percentage points ahead of Bernie Sanders in the survey, with 49 and 41 percent, respectively. At that time, 11 percent of the voters were still undecided, which means the New England state could have significantly shaken up its votes before Tuesday.

Rhode Island Roadblocks To Voting

Apart from the primary polls, Rhode Island has also faced a few other controversies in the lead-up to Tuesday’s elections. Due to financial restrictions, two-thirds of the state’s voting centers will now be closed. John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, told ThinkProgress that this shuttering down had actually been taking place for years, but generally Rhode Islanders do not show up in larger numbers to vote in the primary.

“It’s been standard practice for Rhode Island to consolidate the number of polling places for the presidential primary. But people’s responses have been different, because both the Democratic and Republican races are still hotly contested coming into Rhode Island, and that hasn’t been true in the recent past. So people have been caught off guard by the consolidation, and the fact that they might not be voting where they typically vote in November.”

Now that you’re up to date on the latest 2016 Rhode Island primary polls, you can check out Inquisitr‘s other breakdowns for the Democratic and Republican races in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Connecticut, and Maryland.

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