How does Ida affect the upcoming election?

Early voting for the upcoming municipal elections is supposed to begin on September 25, when most of the Orleans Parish population will still be displaced. In fact, many evacuees will likely still be unable to return home when early voting ends on October 2.  Much of the Orleans electorate might still be involuntarily displaced at 8 p.m. on Election Day itself, Saturday, Oct. 9, 2021, when polls close for the open primary for Orleans mayor, council, sheriff, clerk of court, assessor, and state representative District 102.

The deadline to register to vote by mail is Sept. 8, 2021, and many of the evacuated citizens of New Orleans would not even qualify for that chance to cast a ballot under Louisiana law.  So far, neither Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin nor city officials have presented any plan for displace residents to vote, as occurred prior to the mayoral elections in 2006.

In fairness, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the city went to the polls in the late winter/early spring of 2006, giving time for politicians to react against the massive displacement.  Nevertheless, even if the lights go back on in New Orleans, many people will still be evacuated by the beginning of October. As our newspaper went to press, our editors have seen no action undertaken to make sure that these displaced New Orleanians will have the ability to exercise their sacred constitutional right to vote.

If the La. secretary of state, the clerk of court (who oversees parish elections), and Orleans Registrar of Voters do not quickly make electoral allowances for people continuously displaced, through no fault of their own thanks to Hurricane Ida and Entergy’s subsequent catastrophic electrical failure on the East Bank, then those political officials must plead guilty to deliberately disenfranchising the voters of New Orleans.

At the very least, the La. Secretary of State and city officials should extend the deadline to request an absentee ballot past September 8, 2021, and allow for a dispensation which lets those evacuated due to Ida request a mail-in ballot.  To do anything less is un-American.

In the meantime, absentee ballots can be requested until September 8 by going online to https://voterportal.sos.la.gov/ or telephoning the Orleans Parish Registrar of Voters at (504) 658-8300– provided city offices are even open this week!

This article originally published in the September 6, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.