Low voter interest affects BESE, rep. races

28th November 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer

Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler dubbed it “voter fati­gue”— his explanation for the low electoral turnout of 36 percent in the October 22 statewide elections. On this past Saturday’s election, November 19, it was even worse. Just 20.7 percent of voters went to the polls.

And, that was high compared to Orleans Parish’s anemic turnout. Despite having a judgeship, a BESE seat, two state representative seats, a city charter change and two neighborhood security districts on the ballot, only 11.5 percent of Crescent City voters even bothered to go vote.

In fact, low turnout played a large role in denying Louella Givens a third term on the Board of Elem­entary and Secondary Edu­cation. “Teach for America” executive Kira Orange Jones actually lost Orleans Parish to the incumbent, but went on to crush the union-supported Givens in the new suburban parts of BESE’s 2nd District.

Orange Jones’ victory gives charter and school choice supporters the clear majority on the BESE board. Not only will this speed the appointment of RSD head John White as the new Louisiana Superin­tendent of Education, but the new reform majority will also likely move next year to enact one of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s most desired initiatives — to allow per student funding to follow children — currently in failing schools — to whatever school their parents choose.

It will not matter if the school is private, parochial, or traditional public. Insiders predict that within certain parameters, i.e. submitting to LEAP testing performance requirements, the next BESE Board could make school choice the norm not only in Orleans, but in parishes across Louisiana.

Voter surveys often put Black support of education vouchers at comfortable majorities; however, it is notable that Kira Orange Jones did lose Orleans, albeit by a close margin, 49 percent to 51 percent. That was less than 300 votes out of 22,403 cast.

Still, that does not change the fact that the half of Orleans Parish (that constitutes the majority of voters of this African American-majority BESE seat) had a lower turnout than the city as a whole, just 11.3 percent. Contrast that with turnouts in St. Charles of 25.9 percent, St. James of 34.2 percent, St. John the Baptist of 28.4 percent, and Assumption of 36.3 percent.

In each of those parishes, despite the much smaller overall populations, Orange Jones led Givens by a minimum of 20 points, often more. (Only West Bank Jefferson, with little else on the ballot, was turnout worse than Orleans — at 10.9 percent, and Orange Jones still won 57 percent of the vote.)

Put another way, over 32,000 people voted in a limited group of precincts stretching out along the Mississippi River suburbs, compared to 22,403 in over half of the city. The number of registered, and even chronic voters, in Orleans in a normal turnout election should have dwarfed the turnout in these few suburban precincts — a handful of polling places that in most cases did not even constitute a majority of the precincts resident in their respective parishes.

In other words, had Orleans turnout been higher, particularly amongst the African-American electorate, the race would have been far closer based on the simple weight of registered voters in the city versus the suburbs. It would have been close, but Givens might have been able to win. In her pre-redistricted seat of just Orleans Parish, even with the white pre­cincts included, this race would have ended with a very narrow margin, whomever won. Certainly Orange Jones would not have enjoyed the landslide over Givens she had last Saturday.

The low turnout did not just affect Givens. Democrat Chad Lauga won his Orleans precincts over Vitter-supported Republican Ray Garofalo by six votes, yet still went down to defeat overall 53 percent to 47 percent. Notably, turnout in the New Orleans East precincts was 11.7 percent compared to 56.7 percent in the Plaquemines precincts and the 48.5 percent in St. Bernard.

Republican Rocky Asevedo far outpaced Chris Leopold in Orleans 66 percent to 34 percent, and in Jefferson 69 percent to 31 percent, only to be smashed in Plaquemines 59 percent to 41 percent. There are a total of seven precincts in Jeff and Orleans, compared to 14 in Pla­quemines, so Leopold might still have prevailed. However, if turnout had matched Plaquemines 51.1 percent, instead of 12.4 percent and 16.5 percent, it would have been far tighter.

Only the intraparish Orleans Civil Court Judge race might have turned out the same regardless of turnout. Claire Jupiter beat Nakisha Irvin-Knott, 60-40, in a contest that split the Black community between two African-American candidates.

The Orleans electorate overwhelmingly supported Constitu­tional Amendment 1, supporting a limit on transfer taxes on the sale of property. As Good Government ad­vo­cate, CB Forgotston noted, though, “The low [20.7 percent statewide] turnout was exacerbated by the leges’ decision to place a single constitutional amendment on the ballot for November 19 instead of including it with the five that were on the October ballot.”

“As a result of the leges’ lack of concern there were 605 precincts in the state with nothing but the amendment on the ballot. That unnecessarily costs taxpayers approximately $1 million. Add­itionally, in three parishes only the constitutional amendment was on the ballot. The turnout in those parishes was: Concordia 7.8 percent; Jefferson Davis 8.6 percent; West Carroll 9.8 percent.”

“It’s time for the politicians to stop giving lip service to poor voter participation while actually being pleased with the results. Special elections in Louisiana needs to be eliminated. The numerous elections waste the taxpayers’ money, cause ‘voter fatigue’ and allow a very small minority instead of a majority to rule.”

This article was originally published in the November 28, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper