Louisiana Sees Second-Highest Early Voting Numbers on First Day

LOUISIANA (KPEL News) - Early voting for the November election began on Tuesday, and Louisiana voters are clearly motivated to get out and vote.

According to John Couvillion at JMC Analytics, Tuesday's numbers are the second-highest ever recorded on the first day of early voting, with 108,938 votes submitted Tuesday between on-site and mail-in. Most of those votes came from mail-in ballots.

Jeremy Alford covered the returns in his newsletter Wednesday morning.

Over the past couple months, mail ballots have been stacking up and accounted for 67 percent of the haul yesterday. The 73,073 pieces of mail also represent the second highest volume ever recorded for postal votes.
In-person voting yesterday, meanwhile, yielded 35,865 ballots. (There were 56,545 for day one of the governor's race in 2019, said Couvillon.)

According to Couvillon, 47 percent of the turnout was Democrat while 40 percent was Republican. Of those who voted, 73 percent are White while 24 percent are Black.

How Many Voted In Lafayette?

According to the Lafayette Parish Registrar of Voters, a total of 1,395 people voted on Tuesday across three separate early voting sites.

Those three locations are the Martin Luther King Recreation Center at 309 Cora Street, the East Regional Library at 215 La Neuville Road, and the Registrar of Voters office at 1010 Lafayette Street. Anyone can go and vote, and mail-in ballots are available.

What's On The Ballot

This is a federal election year with U.S. House and Senate races on the ballot in Louisiana. In Lafayette, Congressman Clay Higgins is up for re-election, along with Senator John Kennedy. Each has a host of opponents running against them.

There are also several local races, including for mayor and city councils in Broussard, Carencro, and Scott.

As well as elections, there are also several ballot initiatives for constitutional amendments. There are eight total amendments on the ballot in the November election, and those amendments are broken down here.