Republicans out-vote Democrats in Louisiana primary early voting

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Early voting for the primary election has come and gone and voter turnout, so far, is less than the last election for governor.

Taking a look at the early voting numbers, the Secretary of State’s office shows Republicans outvoted Democrats for the first time in a gubernatorial election. The only other time Republicans have out-voted Democrats in early voting happened in the congressional election last year.

Of the 344,878 Louisianans who voted, 154,455 Republicans early voted while only 139,110 Democrats submitted their ballots. Pollster John Couvillon said there has also been a drop in Black voters in early voting this year.

“But to go from +2 Democratic in 2019 to +2 Republican [in 2022] to as of Saturday night +5 Republican. That to me is indicative of the level of partisan enthusiasm or lack thereof for either side,” Couvillon said.

This is following the ongoing trends of the Republican party growing, while the Democrats continue to hemorrhage registered voters. There has also been a continued interest in absentee ballots since the pandemic. Louisiana has strict guidelines over who can vote absentee such as being over the age of 65 and working offshore, among other criteria.

“Both the Republicans and the other category, which is any party that’s not Democrat or Republican, both of those are growing. While the number of registered Democrats are shrinking,” said Joel Watson, Deputy Secretary of State for Outreach.

Couvillon said he expects Republicans to perform well on election day, but in the governor’s race, he still believes there are enough Republicans voting for other candidates that Jeff Landry will still have to compete in the runoff.

Find a sample ballot or a voting location for Election Day at sos.la.gov.

Data from Louisiana Secretary of State:

2023

TOTAL REGISTERED VOTERS: 2,970,167

TOTAL: 344,878

WHITE: 245,422

BLACK: 90,118

OTHER: 9,338

MALE: 150,061

FEMALE: 194,732

R: 154,455

D: 139,110