Early Voting Numbers Down From 2014 Congressional Elections

BATON ROUGE (AP) — Final early voting numbers are coming in lower than last year's congressional elections.

         The Advocate’s Marsha Shuler reports about 14,000 fewer voters participated in early voting that ended late Saturday than did in the November 2014 congressional elections — the last major comparable election in the state.

         When early voting ended, 222,162 of Louisiana's 2.89 million voters had cast their ballots. That's 7.6 percent.

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         Based on those numbers and historical trends, Secretary of State Tom Schedler predicts voter turnout of between 45 and 50 percent, "somewhere in the 47 to 48 percent range."

         But, he said, he fears it could go lower because of a huge undecided vote showing up in political polling — as high as 30 percent in some elections.

         "It's the biggest wildcard," Schedler said Sunday. Many of those people may stay home and just not vote. "If that happens you will have a huge fall off," he said.

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         A racial breakdown showed that 71 percent of early voters were white, 27 percent black and other race at 2 percent. Sixty-four percent of Louisiana registered voters are white, 31 percent of registered voters are black and 5 percent are another race.

         By comparison, last year's congressional election saw 65 percent white early voting participation to 33 percent black.

         In 2014, 53 percent of those early voting were Democrats to 34 percent Republican and 13 percent no party, or other party.

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         Interest is higher among voters in the state's smaller parishes, where local races are fueling activity. Fifteen percent or more of the voters already cast ballots in those parishes, with Plaquemines Parish leading the way with 25 percent; followed by Red River at 24 percent; Tensas, 23 percent; Caldwell, 21 percent; Richland, 16 percent; East Feliciana, 15.7 percent; and East Carroll, 15.4 percent.

         East Baton Rouge Parish topped the list with the highest number of early votes cast: 19,195. Other parishes leading in early voting were St. Tammany, 14,272; Jefferson, 12,624; Orleans, 12,794; and Lafayette, 9,079. In East Baton Rouge Parish, it was only 6.8 percent of the parish's voters; in St. Tammany, 8.7 percent; Orleans, 5.2 percent; and Jefferson, 4.8 percent.

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