Even after a nationwide search, the state elections agency didn’t end up straying far from home for its new leader.
In fact, the newly named executive director for the R.I. Board of Elections already works in the building. He’s just getting a promotion.
The board unanimously voted to offer Miguel Nunez, the state’s deputy elections director, the executive director job Tuesday, following a brief, closed-door discussion. Almost immediately, Nunez accepted, returning to the table where he’d delivered updates on turnout in a Woonsocket City Council special election minutes before, but this time to deliver an acceptance speech while coworkers and his family cheered for him.
“Twenty-four years ago, when I started here, it was a distant dream of mine, far off in the future that I had to one day be in this position, and I am honored that this dream has become a reality today,” Nunez said.
A Providence native and University of Rhode Island graduate, Nunez got his first taste of local politics as a liaison to the Providence City Council, according to his resume, obtained by Rhode Island Current.
After a yearlong stint in the capital city’s constituent affairs office, he spent the following year in a similar role for then-U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s district office in Pawtucket. In 2000, he was hired by the Board of Elections as a “planning and programming development specialist.”
And he’s never left.
Over the next 24 years, including a promotion to deputy director in 2017, Nunez led election worker training, developed new programs and incorporated modern voting technologies and equipment, while overseeing a whopping 231 local elections, along with six presidential races and 34 rounds of statewide races, according to David Sholes, a board member who headed the subcommittee charged with the executive director search.
In an interview after the meeting, Sholes touted Nunez’ track record of success as reasons why he stood out from among the three dozen contenders who applied for the job.
“We had a list of qualifications, and he checked every single item,” Sholes said.
Secretary of State Gregg Amore in a statement also highlighted Nunez for his experience and expertise.
“I am confident he will step into this new role successfully and continue his work to ensure our elections are fair, accessible, and transparent,” Amore said.
Jennie Johnson, chairwoman of the board, said she appreciated Nunez’ “soft skills” — humility and working well with others, including the other state elections staffers, who met the announcement Tuesday with standing applause.
Nunez, who is fluent in Spanish and has created election education materials in both English and Spanish, is also the board’s first Latino executive director, according to Marcela Betancur, a board member.
“That is a very big deal,” said Betancur, who also heads the Latino Policy Institute.
Nunez will take the realm from his longtime boss and mentor Bob Rapoza, who announced his upcoming retirement in September 2023.
While board members praised Nunez’s vision as outlined in closed-door candidate interviews, his immediate focus is on the upcoming 2024 election, including the April 2 presidential preference primaries. Nunez also named updating the agency’s regulations regarding the candidate nomination process as a top priority for the year ahead.
Scandals over fake signatures on candidates’ nomination papers have clouded congressional and presidential elections in the last year, prompting a slew of legislative reforms proposed by the R.I. Secretary of State. But that’s not the wildest local election moment for Nunez.
Instead, he described the frantic scramble to process 125,000 emergency mail ballots for the 2020 presidential primary as the most difficult in his career.
“The highest we had ever done before that was 41,000 ballots,” Nunez said. “And these all had to be counted manually, so we were bringing in a lot of staff during COVID. It was just total stress, a lot of spur of the moment.”
Nunez’ salary in his new role was not immediately available. As deputy director, his annual salary was $104,578 in fiscal 2024, according to the state payroll database. Rapoza, who has worked for the state elections board since 1997, and as its executive director since 2017, would have received a $169,822 salary in fiscal 2024 if he stayed for the entire year.
Rapoza is expected to retire by the end of the first quarter of this year, Sholes said. Once he takes on his new job, Nunez will be charged with hiring a new deputy director.
Nancy Lavin is a staff writer for the
Rhode Island Current.
