PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island voters would be allowed to vote on the Saturday before Tuesday elections under legislation that Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis is advocating before the General Assembly.

Mollis said yesterday he thinks that allowing voting on a Saturday would be “more convenient” for state voters and could help increase voter participation.

Last November, the Town of Lincoln held a referendum on whether gambling operations should be expanded in the town, which is home to the Twin River gambling complex. In an exit poll commissioned by the secretary of state’s office, 95 percent of Lincoln voters said they favored Saturday voting.

“It was overwhelming. We had 95 percent of the individuals who felt Saturday was extremely convenient and that they were in favor of it,” said Mollis.

Holding voting before the official day for balloting is not a novel idea, Mollis noted. Other states, including Oregon, California and Texas, allow forms of pre-voting, including mail-in ballots.

The only problem with Saturday voting, Mollis said, would be do it in such a way that state and local government, struggling with declining revenues, would not be overburdened by the high cost.

Mollis said efficient ways of conducting Saturday voting would be explored, such as opening only one voting place in a small town and limiting the number of polling places in cities to venues open on Saturdays, such as senior citizen centers and libraries.

Saturday voting, Mollis said, would be allowed only for the state and federal elections held in even-numbered years.

The Saturday polling idea is part of a package of legislation that Mollis has sponsored in the aftermath of a commission he appointed called “The Voters First Advisory Commission.” The results of the commission’s report is scheduled for release today on the secretary of state’s Web site, www.sec.state.ri.us.

In hearings held around the state, 20 people testified on the Saturday voting proposal — 12 were in favor and 8 were opposed.

There is no consensus among those who study the issue on whether early voting programs raise voter turnout, said Curtis Gans, director of The Center for the Study of the American Electorate at American University in Washington, D.C.

“The jury is really mixed at this point on early in-person voting,” said Gans. He said a better way to raise voter participation may be to increase voting hours and go to a system embraced by New York, a state which requires polls to be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

A disadvantage to early voting may be that it would deprive voters of crucial information revealed in the waning hours of an election campaign. Thus if there was a vote Saturday and something big happened, “like Osama Bin Laden got caught on Sunday” voters who already cast their ballots could not change their vote.

Other bills in the package favored by Mollis include requiring cities and towns to better enforce the 50-foot buffer between polling places and politicking candidates who like to be as close as possible to polling booths for election day meet-and-greets and literature drops.

“People need to know exactly where the 50 line is,” said Mollis. “This is legislation that will help the poll workers and the public.”

Other measures in Mollis’ package of legislation would make it easier to clean up the state’s voter rolls by requiring the state Department of Health to send death-certificate data to the secretary of state and bar state voters from registering at more than one address. Other legislation supported by Mollis would also require every polling place to have a handicapped-accessible entrance. The bills were introduced in the House on March 5 and in the Senate last week.

The commission also took testimony on the perennially politically volatile issue of whether to abolish straight party voting. Rhode Island Republicans have long campaigned for removal of the straight-party line ballot option, which GOP leaders believe helps Democrats, the historic majority party in the General Assembly and in presidential and congressional elections. Also, third parties, such as the Green Party, have long sought an end to straight-ticket voting.

Despite the strong feelings the issues raises among state Republicans, Maureen Moakley, a political science professor at the University of Rhode Island, says her research shows that there is not much partisan advantage in the straight-ticket option if it is viewed over time.

For example, Moakley says, it is correct that in 2006 many more Democrats voted the straight ticket than Republicans. But in 2004, Moakley said, a larger percentage of registered Republicans voted a straight ticket than Democrats.

“It works both ways,” says Moakley. “It depends on what election year you look at.”

During hearings, the voter commission took testimony from 16 people, all of whom argued for elimination of straight party voting. Among those pressing for an end to the straight ballot were John Robitaille, a top aide to Governor Carcieri, and Christine Lopes, executive director of Common Cause of Rhode Island.

Just 17 of the 50 states have the straight party option, according to a report by the commission. In the past dozen years, five states have abolished it, with Michigan the only state to bring it back after getting rid of it.

Mollis, however, said he does not want to get rid of straight party voting because so many state voters cast such ballots. In 2006 roughly 20 percent of Rhode Island voters chose to cast a straight party ballot, Mollis said.

“I’m opposed to removing something that, in 2006, one out of every five voters in Rhode Island used,” said Mollis.

smackay@projo.com