Continuing our celebration of Women’s History Month, we place the spotlight on the Rhode Island Secretary of State, Nellie M. Gorbea, a proud Latina of Puerto Rican descent. Since being sworn in on January 6, 2015, Gorbea has already begun making amazing strides to assure that the democratic process is simplified so that all those eligible to vote can and do take advantage of their civic duties as U.S. citizens. One of the key legislative initiatives that she has been leading the charge on is making Rhode Island the 31st state to allow online voter registration. This initiative would allow citizens to easily register to vote or update their voter information on their smartphones and computer devices, decreasing the need for the paper registrations that are currently being used. This is just some of the recent work of Secretary Gorbea, who has dedicated the past twenty years to increasing Rhode Islanders’ civic engagement and making our great state a better place to live and work for all.
Previous to her current position, Gorbea served as Deputy Secretary of State from 2002 to 2006. During that time, she led efforts to make public information more accessible, centralized statewide voter registration systems, and streamlined business filing procedures. She also created an online statewide open meetings notice system to make the government more transparent and accountable. As a former non-profit leader, Gorbea created public-private partnerships that helped make housing more affordable to our state’s families and individuals.
Gorbea has been a great supporter of Dominicanos USA and our work to increase civic engagement in the Dominican-American and Latino community. Working with Secretary Gorbea and her staff has allowed for us to work towards our common goals of civic engagement in a manner that will create last standing change for our community. We are very appreciative of all her support and will continue working together throughout the 2016 election cycle to assure everyone is who is eligible to vote, goes out to vote.
We salute Secretary Gorbea, who is a wife and mother of three daughters, for being a prominent role model for women of all nationalities. It is great women like Nellie Gorbea that help better our communities and give young girls someone great to look up to. We are forever grateful, thank you.
