Right now, state law requires that each polling place serve no more than 1,900 voters – but school gyms, the most common voting venue, could handle thousands more than that. Robert Kando, the election board’s executive director, tells me a bill will be introduced in the new General Assembly session to eliminate the mandate.

Based on the 1,900 limit, the board will need to lease 650 machines to have enough for all 550 or so precincts, plus backups in case some of them break down, at an estimated cost of $1.25 million a year. But that amount could be reduced if lawmakers allow larger polling places.

The savings wouldn’t stop there, either, Kando says. Fewer precincts means fewer deliveries of ballots and machines; fewer poll workers to be trained and paid; fewer technicians to fix broken machines, plus less maintenance; and fewer police officers to check in on polling days.

Cities and towns have to pay for many of those costs, even though precinct sizes are set by the state. ”By having fewer precincts, it has a dramatic effect on the savings for the state of Rhode Island and for the local communities,” he said.

Kando also thinks this would be a particularly good time to make the change since the state will also be embarking on redistricting now that we have the latest U.S. Census population numbers.

This sounds pretty sensible to me – but if you think otherwise, leave your counterargument in the comments section.