The Smoothie King Center in New Orleans was an early voting for the 2022 presidential election. (Photo by Jarvis DeBerry / Louisiana Illuminator)
Early voter turnout so far is very low for Louisiana’s March 29 election to decide the fate of four constitutional amendments and, for some voters, local races and tax referendums.
As of Monday night and the close of the second day of early voting, statewide turnout tallied 67,072. Joel Watson, a spokesperson for Secretary of State Nancy Landry, said his office is expecting final turnout to clock in at about 10-15%.
“We’re pleased with how it’s going so far,” Watson said. “Spring elections are always low-turnout races.”
John Couvillon, a pollster with JMC Analytics, had a slightly different take on the cause of the sleepy voting. While having an election during the spring isn’t ideal, the bigger reasons are the lack of any statewide candidate races on the ballot and a general lack of voter awareness, he said.
All Louisiana voters have four constitutional amendments on the ballot. Arguably the biggest is a complex proposal to overhaul the state’s tax structure.
“Amendments typically aren’t turnout draws to begin with,” Couvillon said, pointing to the Nov. 13, 2021, election in comparison. Voters also had four constitutional amendments to consider — and no other statewide races — on that ballot.
Numbers from the first two days of early voting in this cycle are below the turnout seen over the same period for the November 2021 election, which took place during the coronavirus pandemic and a year after a presidential election. More than 75,000 ballots were cast by the close of the second early voting day during that election, which had a final turnout of 14%.
Louisiana’s 2023 gubernatorial election saw record low voter turnout of just 36%, and Gov. Jeff Landry avoided a runoff with an outright win in the primary.
Couvillon noted that turnout numbers from the first few days of early voting are typically inflated by the posting of absentee ballots that have been accumulating during the preceding weeks, so he expects the daily turnout numbers will be slightly lower for the remaining five days of early voting, which ends Saturday.
Early voting locations are open from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through Saturday. Election day voting precincts will then open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on election day, March 29.
For more information on voting, visit the Secretary of State’s website or call (800) 883-2805.
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