Record numbers of voters locally and nationally cast ballots in the Nov. 3 elections, leading to a hotly contested presidential election and a host of changes among elected officials.
In Rhode Island, House Speaker Nicholas A. Mattiello, D-Cranston, was the highest-profile elected official to lose his reelection bid. Mattiello was ousted by Republican Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung, the wife of Cranston Mayor Allan W. Fung.
Warwick Mayor Joseph J. Solomon, a Democrat, also lost his bid for reelection, to independent Frank Picozzi.
Voters also approved changing the state’s official name from the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations to just the State of Rhode Island.
In 2010, a similar question seeking to change the state’s name was rejected by voters by a ratio of nearly 4 to 1.
Many supporters of the name change have said they see the word “plantations” as a symbol of the type of systemic racism that has led to protests across the country.
