Carnival of fools schedule Saturday’s District 93 contest

15th February 2023   ·   0 Comments

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Columnist

What would happen if Louisiana held an election, and nobody came out to vote?

Thanks to Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin’s decision to schedule the special election for the open 93rd State Representative District on the Saturday before Mardi Gras, we may have an experimental case. Whether intentional or accidental, the election to replace (now-Senator) Royce Duplessis may prove an example of de facto voter suppression, if not – perhaps – de jure.

District 93 seems almost gerrymandered to guarantee that almost no voter could make it to the polls on the Saturday before Mardi Gras. Running from just beyond Jackson Ave. on either side of St. Charles Avenue to the French Quarter and Faubourg Marigny on its upriver side, into Canal Street and Orleans Avenue on its lakeside, and towards the Upper Ninth Ward on its downriver side, this state House seat seems almost designed to be blocked in by parades, particularly on February 18.

If Krewe of Iris and Legion of Mars will not lock people in an impenetrable box, making the trip to the polls impossible for Uptown residents into the early afternoon, the supertandem floats of Endymion are guaranteed to do so in the afternoon and evening for voters in Mid-City. And those who live in Treme, St. Roch, or any of the neighborhoods bordering the Bywater are sure to be trapped in their homes for countless hours as well by street krewes processing on that singular Saturday afternoon. Samedi Gras might make for the most perfect party date of the year, but the fact that the police must close streets and intersections for hours before and after parades and marching organizations pass, makes the trip to the precinct polling stations all but impossible for most of the electorate on Feb. 18.

Moreover, with just over a month since qualifying, most voters do not even know that an election will be held next Saturday. Further confusing nearly everyone is that signs litter the parade routes advertising civil and criminal judicial candidates facing one another in a primary scheduled for March 25.

In other words, the entire city will go to the polls five weeks later, with a potential runoff in April.

Forgive the average voter for thinking that the primary for this open state representative seat will be decided in March.

Such a confusing reality undercuts the counter argument made by some in the Secretary of State’s Office that voters had ample time to early vote. Of course, most Orleanians had only two Saturdays to go to City Hall to cast a ballot (as they work Monday to Friday), and those Saturday afternoons happened to conclude with Krewe de Vieux and Chewbaccus.

While Duncan Plaza stands a few blocks from the French Quarter parades’ conclusion, nevertheless, streets around Loyola Avenue ended up as controlled chaos from the clamoring crowds on those Saturdays, as spectators sought parking spaces hours before.

The conspiracy-minded might wonder if a greater agenda was afoot. While District 93 remains 51.6 percent Black, its historic neighborhoods also have experienced some of the highest levels of gentrification in the city. The demographic makeups of the Lower Garden District, the Treme, and St. Roch neighborhoods have all transformed in recent years. Consequently, the state House seat’s ostensible 34.8-percent Caucasian population might be closer to a white electoral majority in a low turnout election.

Of course, it remains the author’s main political dictum to “never ascribe to conspiracy what simple incompetence might explain.” Secretary of State Ardoin stated that he scheduled the special election, with only District 93 on the Orleans ballot, so that the seat would send a representative to Baton Rouge in time for the April 4 Regular Legislative Session, with a primary in February and (if needed) a runoff in March.

However, Ardoin’s absence of mind – to not realize that a Carnival election day in this district might prove too formidable an obstacle – borders on the incompetent, and maybe something more sinister. It is too easy to believe that some staffer scheduled a special election in a Black-majority district without ever considering in what a geographically and culturally important location that seat might lay. A skeptic might conclude that an African-American open House seat might not draw as much critical thinking on the staffer’s part as, say, an election for an open Caucasian-majority seat might have further uptown. If Mandie Landry had won the state Senate 5 office instead of Royce Duplessis, would the Secretary of State’s Office have scheduled an election knowing that most of the precincts along St. Charles, Napoleon and Jefferson avenues would prove impenetrable?

Of course, those would be white voters, mostly. Ardoin does contend that the February 18 election was planned regardless of which candidate emerged victorious from the last election, yet why would any election be scheduled in New Orleans over Mardi Gras? The very idea seems so absurd that even those who wish to give Ardoin the benefit of the doubt, still wonder, “Could this be to suppress the vote?”

This article originally published in the February 13, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.