PAWTUCKET, R.I. – Something fishy is going on in Rhode Island.

Last week, about 24,297 ballots were mailed to “eligible retirees, teachers, state employees, police, fire and municipal employees” who are members of labor unions currently suing the state over pension reforms enacted in 2011, the Providence Journal reports.

The ballots asked eligible employees whether they approve of a compromise deal on pensions negotiated between union attorneys and Governor Chafee and General Treasurer Gina Raimondo.

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What’s odd is any ballot not returned is considered a ‘yes’ vote, the new site reports.

So it was particularly suspicious when the niece of the late Eleanor Cute received a ballot in the mail addressed to her deceased aunt. Cute “was a charter member of the Pawtucket Teacher’s Alliance and … loyal and active supporter throughout her 44-year career” before she died in 2009 at age 91, according to her obituary cited by the Journal.

Cute’s niece, Eleanor Kinch, said it was troubling enough that the union sent a ballot to her long-dead aunt, but it was even more disturbing considering that she’s certain her aunt would have voted ‘no.’

“She was a strong union member and she would have felt that a contract was a contract,” Kinch said told the Journal. “I can’t imagine it’s just one … I just don’t want her to be recorded as a yes.

“Something is not quite right.”

Of course those representing the Rhode Island Public Employees Retiree Coalition provided an apology to Ms. Cute’s family, and tried to explain why she received a ballot. RIPERC officials said they took care of the problem by contacting ProMail, the company that is mailing ballots and counting votes.

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“Ms. Cute’s ballot will not be included in the vote tabulation. RIPERC is reviewing its membership lists and will work with ProMail to ensure that any unqualified ballots are not tabulated,” Raymond Sullivan, spokesman for RIPERC, told the Journal.

Apparently, the public will have to take his word for it.

It that was the only snafu, it would simply be suspicious. But other monkey business with the voting process points to something bigger.

In another instance, an email sent to retired members of the American Federation of Teachers informed them their ballots must be postmarked by April 3, 2014, when in reality they must be received by election officials by then. Of course anyone who misses that deadline – and there are bound to be many – is counted as a ‘yes.’

Union officials said they plan to send an email correcting the information today.

There’s more. At least 19 teachers in Warwick reported that their ballots never arrived. They also question why the union changed its voting procedure to count unreturned ballots as ‘yes’ votes, the Journal reports.

“When has a union ever voted in this manner? It’s always you get a ballot and you vote yes or no, and you count the ballots and the majority wins,” Warwick Teachers Union president James Ginolfi said.

“This method of voting has tainted the whole process and made people suspicious of why it is being done this way,” he told the Journal.

Robert Walsh, executive director of the National Education Association of Rhode Island, said if “instances of ballots not reaching members who are eligible to vote … (are) brought directly to our attention, those discrepancies will be addressed.”

Of course they will – wink, wink.