Louisiana may delay for a month both the October and November elections due to damage from Ida.
The Oct. 9 ballot is full of primaries for three legislative seats, along with the mayor, sheriff, assessor and seven city council members in New Orleans. It also has two constitutional amendments.
Gov. John Bel Edwards and Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin met yesterday to talk over the problems caused by the storm. Much of the region is without power, some precinct locations are damaged and the postal service hasn’t resumed regular deliveries.
Additionally, the Secretary of State’s Office reaches out to nursing home residents to help them with absentee voting, and many of those facilities have been evacuated.
State government operations aren’t expected to get back to normal in many parishes until after early voting begins Sept. 25. With the exception of Sept. 26, early voting is scheduled to continue through Oct. 2 from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
A general election, to decide the outcomes if the primaries do not result in one candidate winning outright, is scheduled for Nov. 13.
The storm affected more than 40% of the state’s registered voters. Legal deadlines are looming.
The deadline for in-person registration is Wednesday.
For nursing home residents, the deadline is Thursday. And by Friday, election commissioners across the state have to be chosen, though many local officials don’t know where all their commissioners are.
In 11 days, Ardoin’s office has to publish the locations of the polling places.
