A bill to extend early voting from seven to 10 days during presidential elections was approved unanimously by a House committee yesterday.
Rep. Frederick Jones, D-Monroe, offered his bill after the record voter turnout in the 2020 presidential election.
Louisiana saw over 2.1 million people vote in November, and 986,000 of them voted early in-person. The bill originally extended early voting for every election, but after financial concerns from the registrars of voters, Jones limited the bill to presidential elections. The extension of early voting comes with a price tag of $400,000 to the state, including pay for poll workers.
Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin noted that while early voting provides a great convenience to voters, extending this period for every election would come with challenges for his office and the registrars.
The first presidential election in which early voting was used in Louisiana was in 2008 with 15% of Louisianans participating. That number significantly increased in each presidential election since, to 18% of all voters in 2012 and 26% in 2016. Early in-person voting expanded to 14 days in the November election because of the temporary emergency voting plan under the COVID-19 pandemic, and a record 46% of Louisianans chose to vote early. That early-voting period has since returned to the normal 7 days.
Compared to other states, Louisiana stands relatively in the middle of early voting availability. Some states like Alabama and Mississippi don’t offer early voting. In Wyoming, Michigan and New Jersey, residents can begin voting as early as 45 days before election day.
