Because voters decided the outcome of Louisiana’s governor’s race last month, Saturday’s election drew even fewer voters than the Oct. 14 primary vote – 22.5% statewide – as Republicans extended their control of the state Legislature and captured every statewide office.
Robert Collins, a political analyst and professor of urban studies and public policy at Dillard University, called the turnout “freakishly low.”
“To me, the big headline of the general election was that three-quarters of the electorate did not bother to vote,” Collins told the Louisiana Record.
Fair Vote, a nonpartisan group promoting democracy and greater voter participation, noted that all 44 state and parish contests that held runoffs this year had lower turnouts than the first round of elections in October. About 350,000 fewer voters turned out this month, representing a 35% decline in the statewide runoffs.
Fair Vote suggested that more voters could have taken part in selecting the winners had a ranked-choice voting system been in place in October.
The Republican candidates for attorney general, treasurer and secretary of state all won handily against their respective Democratic opponents. The state’s current solicitor general, Liz Murrill, garnered 66% of the vote against Democrat Lindsey Cheek’s 34%, while Republican treasurer candidate John Fleming won 65% of the vote compared to Democrat Dustin Granger’s 35%. Republican Nancy Landry defeated ”Gwen” Collins-Greenup 67% to 33% in the secretary of state race, according to unofficial election results.
Landry, a former legislator and the current first assistant secretary of state, will allow the Secretary of State’s Office to transition smoothly to new leadership, Collins said.
“That allows for continuity,” he said.
Legislative elections on Saturday also allowed Republicans to strengthen their hold on the state Legislature, with Republicans poised to outnumber Democrats in the Senate 28 to 11 and in the House of Representatives 73 to 32, according to Collins.
Four statewide measures were also on Saturday’s ballot, with voters signing off on three of them. One successful measure will allow the Legislature to consider overriding vetoes during regular or extraordinary sessions, rather than having to convene a separate veto session, and another repeals several inactive state funds. Amendment 3 will allow local governments to provide new tax exemptions to first-responders.
The only measure that voters turned down would have allowed the lawmakers, through a two-thirds vote, to ease budget deficits by redirecting up to $250 million in revenues in the Revenue Stabilization Trust Fund.
Collins said Amendment 4 likely failed because it was overly complex and because some good-government groups said it might have restricted lawmakers’ ability to respond to emergency situations.
““When voters don’t understand an amendment, they're going to just vote ‘No’ on it,” he said.
But he said the overall voter turnout – which dipped down to only 15.3% in Orleans Parish – demonstrated an important indicator of citizen participation in civic affairs. The low turnout was apparent in both Democratic and Republican areas, according to Collins.
Democrats, especially, will need to do some soul searching to become competitive statewide again, he said.
“Democrats who ran statewide did not have any money to spend,” Collins said, noting that the statewide party did not adequately help their candidates.