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Paige Daniel and Abigail Hendren
LSU Manship School
News Service

BATON ROUGE--Three blue states–Washington, Oregon and Colorado–conduct all of their elections through mail-in votes, and four red states--Wyoming, Montana, Utah and Alaska–are joining them this year in conducting their presidential primaries entirely through mail ballots.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak began, 28 other states have announced plans to increase access to absentee ballots or take other actions to keep voters from lining up at polling places.
Yet in deciding on Tuesday to delay Louisiana’s presidential primary to July 11, the Legislature insisted that state election officials scale back plans to rely less on in-person voting and more on mail voting to reduce the health risks.
Republican legislators expressed concern that more mail-in ballots could increase the potential for voter fraud. But national election experts say there have been few instances of fraud as other states have expanded voting by mail. And even once the risks from the virus ease, they say, Louisiana could increase voter turnout if it made greater use of alternative voting methods.
Voter turnout in governor’s races in Louisiana declined steadily for several decades, from 54% in 1979 to 31% in 2011 before rebounding to 51% last fall, according to the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office. Turnout in presidential elections in Louisiana has stayed higher, at 55% to 60% of eligible voters, though voting-rights advocates fear it could slip this year if voters do not feel safe.
Voting by mail is “something we’ve thought was important for a while now, but with the current state of the world, we now believe it is not only important, but essential to the democratic process,” Catherine McKinney, the director of the Louisiana Vote-by-Mail initiative, said.
“Now it is not only easier but imperative to keeping our poll workers and our voters safe from a global pandemic,” she said.
Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, a Republican, and Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, had agreed on an emergency election plan that would have made mail-in absentee ballots available in the presidential primary to anyone affected by the coronavirus or who did not want to vote in person for fear of catching it.
Sen. Barry Milligan, R-Shreveport, helped shoot down that plan at a hearing on April 15, saying it was “extremely broad and basically covers everyone in Louisiana.”
“There is not an election cycle that goes through that we wake up to the news that votes are found in somebody’s garage or somebody’s truck,” Milligan said.
Milligan’s comments echoed concerns expressed by President Donald Trump, who claimed recently that “mail ballots are a very dangerous thing for this country, because they’re cheaters.”
He also maintained that if vote-by-mail were expanded, “you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”
Numerous studies show, however, that mail-ballot fraud is very rare. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, a non-partisan institute in New York, none of the states that hold their elections by mail have had any voter fraud scandals. In fact, the most significant recent instance of voter fraud was committed by a Republican operative in North Carolina, who illegally collected and filled in absentee ballots.
Under a compromise approved by the Legislature, Louisiana residents who are already allowed to mail in absentee ballots, such as those age 65 and older, will be able to vote by mail in the presidential primary and in state elections in August. Because of the threat from the virus, people with serious medical conditions or those who are quarantined or taking care of someone quarantined also will be able to mail ballots.
But lawmakers blocked other proposals by Ardoin to temporarily allow voting by mail for people between ages 60 and 65 or those caring for a child whose school was closed. They also rejected his plan to extend early voting in person to 13 days from seven. No changes have been considered for the presidential election in November.
Colorado, Oregon and Washington were voting entirely by mail long before the COVID-19 outbreak.
Colorado implemented mail-in ballots in 2013. Its voter turnout rate was 51.7%. in 2010, but in its 2018 gubernatorial election, nearly 62% of eligible voters mailed in ballots.
Voter turnout in Washington is typically around 70% of registered voters with all-mail voting. At least 60% of people in Washington chose the option to vote by mail before the state switched to sending mail-in ballots to all registered voters.
Even though it was at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, Washington had a 50% turnout rate for its presidential primary in March, thanks to its focus on mail voting. Louisiana’s voter turnout in the 2016 presidential primary was only 28% of registered voters.
Before the pandemic, Louisiana was one of only 16 states that required voters to submit a valid excuse to obtain an absentee. In the 2016 general election, only 1.8% of Louisiana’s registered voters cast absentee ballots.
Ardoin and legislators from both parties say they want to avoid a situation like Wisconsin just went through in its presidential primary on April 7.
Republican leaders there rejected proposals to loosen restrictions on voting because of the virus, and they were backed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Long lines ensued, and 52 Wisconsin voters and poll workers have since been diagnosed with COVID-19, though it is unclear where their exposures occurred.
Given the health risks, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo canceled the state’s Democratic primary altogether. Ohio, a key swing state, was one of the first states to move forward with a last-minute plan to vote by mail. Results of that change were mixed in its primary on Tuesday, with many citizens failing to receive an absentee ballot in time to cast their vote.
Besides vote-by-mail, some states have implemented other alternative voting methods--either before the COVID-19 outbreak or since--to make voting more accessible and increase turnout.
These include same-day registration, in which people can register online or at the polls on election days, and holidays from work for voting. Georgia and Colorado, both states with average turnout rates over 50%, have holidays on election days, while Louisiana does not.
Early, in-person voting has expanded in Louisiana, with 33% of those who cast ballots in the 2019 gubernatorial election voting early.
But “if you want to vote early, you have to go to a central location,” said Dr. Brian Brox, a Tulane University professor specializing in. Other states have implemented early voting that actually incorporates satellite early voting, where they basically have more places in the county, rather than having to go to the courthouse.”
Virginia and Maryland are among the states that have lifted restrictions on voting since the COVID-19 outbreak. Virginia removed its excuse requirement for absentee ballots, loosened voter identification laws and expanded its early-voting period. It also made election day a holiday.
Brox contends that lawmakers in Louisiana have not been interested in removing more of the barriers because the voters who manage to overcome them are the ones who put them in office.
“There needs to be a way to kind of get around the gatekeepers, who are basically the legislators,” he said.
Lawmakers, of course, disagree. “I’m not going to spend the thousand hours of effort to come up with good solutions to these problems,” Rep. Barry Ivey, R-Central, said in an interview on this subject last year. “I do not feel that as a state our voting opportunities in the aggregate are subpar. I believe we’re probably above average in that category.”
But in the congressional election in November 2018, Louisiana ranked 45 out of 50 states and the District of Columbia in the percentage of voters who turned out, according to data compiled by Dr. Michael McDonald at the University of Florida.
Republican strategists fear that expanding the use of mail ballots would increase voter turnout among poorer people who would not vote for them. But greater use of mail ballots also could help Republicans, especially if Louisiana gets a second wave of COVID-19 in the fall and older voters are reluctant to go to the polls.
If the virus ramps up again then, McKinney said, “Under no circumstances should the state of Louisiana put our poll workers or our voters in harm’s way when such a simple solution is available like vote-by-mail.”

After a weekend that started with a show of American strength and unity with B-52 flybys, Saturday ended with the largest display of disunity so far against the quarantine as nearly 300 shouted at Louisiana’s Executive Mansion for Governor John Bel Edwards to reopen business immediately.  Monday morning on WWL Newsradio in New Orleans, Jefferson Parish Councilmember Jennifer Van Vrancken said her district, one of the hottest of the original COVID hotspots, was now ready to reopen.  “I know the Governor is thinking of things statewide,” she said, “but we’re not going to Shreveport or Monroe on an average weekend. Jefferson is ready to reopen.  We are hoping the governor will let regions of the state get back to business.”

So far, the governor has said it’s all or nothing in reopening the state.  Before his first press conference in the Capitol since March, Governor Edwards said he joined nearly every other governor on a conference call with Vice President Mike Pence.  They discussed how to achieve the White House mandate of 14-straight days of declining COVID cases.  Nine of those governors are reopening their states without having met that criteria.

“Look,” answered Governor Edwards, “I don’t second guess that other governors do.  They have their own considerations.  Here in Louisiana, to the extent that we can, we’re going to abide by the guidelines [from the Trump administration and CDC] because we think they make sense.”

Downstairs in the House and Senate, some lawmakers don’t agree.  Under protest from many of their colleagues, Senate President Paige Cortez and House Speaker Clay Schexnayder forced reconvening.  They said they have to hammer out a budget in just four weeks.  Those who protested said they feared for their health after COVID took the life of Rep. Reggie Bagala of Lafourche Parish last month. Baton Rouge Representative Ted James also was hospitalized for days, and even Senate President Cortez himself took days to recover from COVID-19.  

Schexnayder and Cortez say the governor did not include them in his decision to extend the stay-at-home order to May 15.  Edwards says he did conference with the two and told them he was following guidance from President Trump to secure the $1.8 billion in federal aid.

Many returning legislatures are likewise meeting with disharmony.  In Michigan, frustration over the quarantine spilled into the Michigan Senate Thursday where some rioters brandished assault rifles, causing senators to scramble for bulletproof vests. 

Governor Edwards says no provision to beef up capitol security has been made or is necessary.  “I don’t think Louisianans will do that,” he said, reiterating that if Louisiana experiences any violence or any spike in COVID cases, that news would streak across the nation and kill Louisiana tourism.  In 2018, over 51 million visitors spent $19 billion in Louisiana, according to Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser.  Those tourists paid almost $2 billion in state and local taxes.

“And I would remind you,” continued the governor, “that we did not at the outset close a lot of the things in Louisiana that were closed elsewhere.  I read as other states come back online that they are restarting construction.  Well, we never closed construction.  They’re opening up manufacturing.  We never closed manufacturing.  Every time CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, has revised their guidelines to include more areas as critical infrastructure, we have embraced that completely.  So we’re on our third set of critical infrastructure now.  And yet, we’ve been able to reduce our [COVID] case growth and our numbers in a way that, quite frankly, is as impressive as any place in the country.”

The 2020 Louisiana Legislative session closes June 1 but most expect at least one special session during summer.  Louisiana’s fiscal year ends June 30.  If a budget is not passed by then, state government could freeze, said the governor.  Adding to the tension, losses in state revenue from the Coronavirus shutdown combined with plummeting oil prices range from $500 million to a possible drop of $1 billion.

Parker Reign Bessard
A daughter, Parker Reign Bessard, was born Thursday, April 16, 2020, at Abbeville General to Mr. and Mrs. Draklen Damon Bessard of Abbeville.
The mother is the former Twyla Markeesha Jones.

Evelyn Grace Cormier
A daughter, Evelyn Grace Cormier, was born Friday, April 10, 2020, at Abbeville General to Kortney Danielle Pigron and Beaux Andrew Cormier of Maurice.

Paisley Marie Lemaire
A daughter, Paisley Marie Lemaire, was born Monday, April 20, 2020, at Abbeville General to Kylie Marie Gaspard and Joshua Caleb Lemaire of Abbeville.

Gabriella Ann Jacobs
A daughter, Gabriella Ann Jacobs, was born Monday, April 6, 2020, at Abbeville General to Brittany Elizabeth Breaux and Jamie Jacobs of Kaplan.

Jeffery Adam Breaux, III
A son, Jeffery Adam Breaux, III, was born April 21, 2020, at Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s and Children’s Hospital to Taylor Laviolette and Jeffery Breaux, II of Erath.

Kayden Ma’Kai Petry
A son, Kayden Ma’Kai Petry, was born April 15, 2020, at Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s and Children’s Hospital to Na’Kayla Petry of Abbeville.

Rilyn Grace Vidalier
A daughter, Rilyn Grace Vidalier, was born April 15, 2020, at Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s and Children’s Hospital to Macey Cormier and John Vidalier, Jr. of Duson.

Monte Kash Montgomery
A son, Monte Kash Montgomery, was born April 13, 2020 at Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s and Children’s Hospital to Mr. and Mrs. Lyle Montgomery of Maurice.
The mother is the former Krystal Wilson.

Myles Andre Carlock
A son, Myles Andre Carlock, was born April 11, 2020, at Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s and Children’s Hospital to Chloe Gautreaux and Jonathan Carlock of Lafayette.

Briggs Michael Derise
A son, Briggs Michael Derise, was born April 6, 2020, at Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s and Children’s Hospital to Bailey Delcambre and Samuel Derise of Erath.

Baker Jude Dubuc
A son, Baker Jude Dubuc, was born April 4, 2020, at Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s and Children’s Hospital to Mr. and Mrs. Caleb Dubuc of Breaux Bridge.
The mother is the former Whitney Duhon.

Ellie-Ahna Marie Manuel
A daughter, Ellie-Ahna Marie Manuel, was born April 2, 2020, at Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s and Children’s Hospital to Anne-Renee Meaux and Adam Manuel of Abbeville.

Abbeville Police are investigating a shooting that resulted in the death of an Abbeville man.
On May 3, at approximately 10:25 p.m., officers of the Abbeville Police Department were dispatched to the 400 block of Dutel Street. Once officers arrived, officers located a male victim inside of a vehicle.
The victim had been shot.
The victim, now being identified as 29-year-old James Jerome Darby of Abbeville, was pronounced dead at the scene by the Vermilion Parish Coroner’s Office.
​​This homicide is being actively investigated by the Abbeville Police Department’s Detective Division. No other aspect of this investigation is being released at this time. Anyone with any information regarding this crime is asked to contact the Abbeville Police Department at the contact information listed below.
​Chief of Police William Spearman would also like to remind all of the citizens that we are there, 24 hours a day, to serve you. We encourage all of our citizens to stay vigilant and contact us if you need. In addition to dialing 911, you can contact us at 893-2511. You may contact our “Tips” line at 892-6777. All callers may remain anonymous. Citizens may also send anonymous tips through the Tip411 system at the department’s Facebook page @ www.facebook.com/AbbevillePolice Department/, the official web page @ www.abbevillepd.com by clicking on the “Submit a Tip” link provided or through the official Abbeville Police Department app, which can be downloaded through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.