PROVIDENCE — Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis yesterday announced his ideas for improving the integrity of the voting system and increasing convenience for voters.

Among those ideas: requiring photo identification at the polls and allowing voting over several days.

Mollis also announced the members of a commission charged with studying his proposals, holding public hearings around the state, and crafting legislation for introduction next year. Mollis said his ideas are just that — ideas — and the proposals may change significantly based on input from the commission and the public.

“We expect this to truly change the way Rhode Islanders are used to voting,” Mollis said, noting that last November, roughly half of those registered to vote in Rhode Island actually voted.

Of the list of 10 bullet points — dubbed the “Voters First” initiative — the proposals to require photo ID and open polls across several days were the most concrete suggestions. Many of the others named problems, rather than proposing solutions. Mollis says the state should:

•Consider easing the requirements for absentee voting

•Look at ways to clean up the voter rolls, such as decreasing obstacles to removing voters who have died, have moved or are registered at more than one address

•Consider ways to increase voting booth privacy, such as adding curtains to booths

•Consider expanding the no-canvassing zone around polling places from the current radius of 50 feet

•Standardize training and compensation for poll workers across the state

•Revisit the voter registration form, and consider requiring additional documentation and proof of residency

•Examine poll opening and closing times, and

•Study expanding in-person registration of voters by trained and authorized canvassing agents

Meghan Purvis, policy director for Ocean State Action, attended Mollis’ news conference to deliver a letter from her advocacy group and 12 others, expressing disappointment that Mollis advanced ideas rather than leaving the discussion open-ended, and dismay over some of the individual ideas.

In particular, the groups — which included International Institute Rhode Island, the local affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Rhode Island Disability Law Center — called the photo ID proposal “an overreaction to a largely nonexistent problem of alleged voter impersonation.” They ticked off statistics to show whom the measure might disenfranchise: More than 3 million Americans with disabilities do not possess a driver’s license or state-issued photo ID; 153,000 seniors who voted in Georgia in 2004 don’t have a government-issued photo ID; A 1994 study found that African-Americans in Louisiana were four to five times less likely than whites to have a photo ID.

But Mollis and other members of the commission said they are committed to making sure everyone who’s eligible gets a chance to vote. For instance, Rep. Joseph S. Almeida and Sen. Juan M. Pichardo, both Providence Democrats and co-chairs of the Minority Legislative Caucus, said they will serve on the commission with an eye toward making sure the poor and people of color are not disenfranchised.

Besides Mollis, Almeida and Pichardo, the commission includes: Rep. Jon D. Brien, D-Woonsocket; Sen. June N. Gibbs, R-Middletown; Robert Kando, executive director of the state Board of Elections; Ken McGill, registrar for the Pawtucket Board of Canvassers; Jan Ruggiero, director of elections in Mollis’ office; and Sue Stenhouse, deputy director of community relations for Governor Carcieri. Although Stenhouse works in Carcieri’s office, she said she won’t be representing the governor’s interests, but rather, her own interests in election laws as a former Warwick city councilwoman and candidate for secretary of state — Stenhouse was Mollis’ Republican opponent last fall.

egudrais@projo.com