Governor of louisiana voter confusion widened in Louisiana after nearly 179,000 primary ballots were already cast by Friday, even as votes in U.S. House contests will not be counted. Nancy Landry’s office said the ballots included early and absentee votes from a primary scheduled for Saturday.
That leaves voters like 66-year-old Sallie Davis in New Orleans with a ballot that may not match the districts Louisiana is now reconsidering. Davis said she voted for Democratic U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, then saw his race crossed off with a ballpoint pen.
Nancy Landry on Friday
Landry, Louisiana’s secretary of state, said about 53,000 absentee ballots had been returned by mail as of Friday, part of the nearly 179,000 primary ballots already cast. Her office also said votes in those U.S. House contests will not be counted.
The ballots were cast after a week of early voting that began on May 2. The Republican governor declared an emergency and suspended congressional primaries two days before early voting started.
Louisiana map dispute
The dispute traces to last month’s Supreme Court decision that severely weakened the Voting Rights Act and required Louisiana to reconsider a 2024 map with two majority minority congressional districts that elected Black representatives. The GOP-controlled Legislature could eliminate one or both of those districts, and roughly 30% of Louisiana’s population is Black.
Davis said a poll worker told her to go with what the sign seemed to convey. After voting, she said, “I was supposed to believe a piece of paper with an X on it marking out the person I wanted to vote for.”
Sallie Davis in New Orleans
She later added, “I think I have been disenfranchised. I think my vote, that I just voted on, it’s not going to count or something. I think it’s illegal.” The concern now is practical: voters who already marked U.S. House races need to know those ballots are not part of the count, even though the primary remains on Saturday.
