R.I. Gen. Laws § 17-20-27
The state board shall, at the completion of the count of all votes cast at any election, securely store all ballots cast in the election, and after the certification of the results of the elections, the state board shall place all ballots received from mail voters together with the certified envelopes containing the ballots in a steel box or package and shall seal the ballots and envelopes in open meetings of the board by affixing at least four (4) adhesive labels, and the members of the board shall sign the labels by affixing their signatures in ink to each of the labels, and thereafter no steel box or package shall upon any pretense be reopened by any person, except upon order of the general assembly or a court of competent jurisdiction, but shall be held by the board for twenty-two (22) months, when they may then be destroyed. The certified copies of the voting lists of mail voters and the applications referred to in § 17-20-10 shall likewise be safely sealed and kept by the board for the same length of time.
R.I. Gen. Laws § 17-20-27