Early Voting for March 20th Election Begins Saturday

Needless to say, the lines at the polling places where elections are being held these next few weeks in Louisiana will be significantly shorter than they were for the Presidential election of last November. Part of the reason is obvious, there is no big national election or issue on the ballot. Still, there are important decisions that will need to be made.

Louisiana's Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin has announced that early voting will run from March 6th through March 13th. You can cast an early ballot at your Parish Registrar of Voter's office. You can also see what offices, issues, and selections are on your specific ballot for where you vote by visiting Geaux Vote.com 

In Louisiana, we will actually be voting to fill two congressional seats. The 2nd District, which is basically the New Orleans area will choose a replacement for Cedric Richmond who resigned his seat to take a job with President Joe Biden's administration.

Closer to home voters in Louisiana's 5th Congressional District which runs makes a "unique" swath across the northern and eastern third of the state, will choose a replacement for Luke Letlow. You might remember Letlow succumbed to complications brought on by COVID-19 before he could be sworn in.

There are also some tax issues and municipal races that will be on the ballot as well. For example in St. Landry Parish voters will choose a new Parish President. In Calcasieu Parish voters there will choose a mayor a city council members. It's a similar scenario for the city of Jennings in Jeff Davis Parish.

These "off-year" elections always produce dismal voter turnouts. Which is always very depressing to me. These are some very important choices for all of us and the way it stands now we'll be lucky if two in ten or maybe three in ten registered voters actually bother to cast a ballot.

Again to see your ballot for where you live, click right here.

And if you don't believe every vote counts, take a look at some of these places where one or two votes can make all the difference in the world.