NEWPORT – Two years after a mob of angry citizens stormed the U.S. Capitol and temporarily prevented Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election results, The League of Women Voters of Newport County decided to organize a vigil to commemorate the date, pay respect to the Capitol police officers who took their own lives in the days and weeks following the events of January 6, 2020, encourage civic involvement to safeguard democracy in Rhode Island.

Christine Keyser Stenning, one of the organization’s co-presidents, told The Daily News she proposed the idea for a vigil after watching “No Time to Fail,” a documentary film about the state of Rhode Island and its election workers’ efforts to safeguard access to the ballot and ensure election integrity.

“As we focused on voting, because that’s what we’re about – the League of Women Voters is about voting, and it’s about preservation of democracy – this just felt like the right thing to do,” said Keyser Stenning.

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Although the vigil was originally planned as an outdoor event, the League decided to move it indoors in the face of a damp, chilly forecast. Thanks to Newport’s uniquely well-preserved history and the generosity of the Newport Historical Society, they were able to move to an incredibly well-suited venue: the Old Colony House, a National Historic Landmark built in 1741 to serve as the original meeting place for Rhode Island’s colonial legislature.

“(The Colony House) is where the General Assembly met until 1901 before the Statehouse was built in Providence,” explained Rebecca Bertrand, executive director of the Newport Historical Society, “so for years this is where democracy was happening in this state.”