Louisiana’s new closed party primary causes confusion at the polls on election day

Louisiana’s new closed party primary system on Saturday left many voters confused and election commissioners exasperated.

Most of the angst centered on the new rules for no-party voters, who have to choose whether to vote Democratic, Republican or no-party on a one-page form called Declaration of Ballot Choice.

Election commissioners reported delays throughout the day from having to explain the new process to no-party voters and then having those voters choose which election to vote in.

No-party voters who checked the “no-party” box found when they went behind the curtain that they could not vote in the high-profile Senate election for one of the Republican or Democratic candidates. To do that, they had to check the box for Republican or Democratic.

Louis Perret, the clerk of court in Lafayette Parish, said one election commissioner was so frustrated that she went home for lunch on Saturday and didn’t return.

“I’ve been here 22 years,” said Diane Broussard, the clerk of court in Vermillion Parish. “By far, this has been the worst election. I’m on a text chain with other clerks of court. There’s confusion throughout the state.”

Broussard and other clerks of court reported another problem: Some people who have been registered as Democrat for years, but who typically vote Republican, showed up not realizing that, under the semi-closed party primary, they could only vote for a Democrat.

“The closed party primary is idiotic. It’s a waste of money,” said Harry LeBlanc, a retiree and no-party voter, after he voted at Lakeshore Playground in Metairie. “I don’t understand why it exists except for the parties trying to give themselves an advantage.”

LeBlanc noted that, having chosen on Saturday to vote in the Republican primary, he will now have to vote for Republicans in the June 27 runoff as well.

“That takes away choices,” LeBlanc said.

Polling stations are open on Saturday until 8 p.m. Many polling stations reported no problems on Saturday.

Early voting from May 2-9 also produced many problems.

In the Senate election, U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming are trying to unseat Sen. Bill Cassidy, as is little-known business owner Mark Spencer.

Three Democrats are on the ballot Saturday in a separate party primary. They are Jamie Davis, a farmer from northeast Louisiana who has the endorsement of the Louisiana Democratic Party; Nick Albares, a policy analyst in New Orleans who has the support of his former boss, ex-Gov. John Bel Edwards; and Gary Crockett, a business owner in New Orleans who spent 24 years in the Navy.

Cassidy held a press conference by phone with reporters on Friday to express concerns about the new semi-closed party primary system.

Cassidy opposed moving from the open, or jungle primary, in January 2024 when Gov. Jeff Landry pushed the change through the Republican Legislature, with the senator citing the cost of having an extra runoff election under the new system.

On Friday, Cassidy warned that turmoil would disenfranchise voters and who would end up not voting.

“As Louisianans vote today, it’s becoming crystal clear that No Party voters are facing a disjointed, difficult process to actually cast a vote in the GOP primary,” he said Saturday.

On Friday, Cassidy noted that then-Gov. Bobby Jindal and the Legislature switched to a party primary in 2008.

“It was a disaster,” Cassidy said. “So after one election, we went back to the open primary, which has served us well.”

Landry initially sought a completely closed party primary system where only Democrats could vote for Democrats and Republicans for Republicans.

But U.S. Sen. John Kennedy and others got the state Senate to amend the closed party primary bill by then-state Rep. Julie Emerson, R-Carencro, who is now Landry’s chief of staff, to allow no-party voters to choose which party primary to vote in.

Kennedy said the change was necessary to allow the state’s no-party voters to participate in the primary. As of May 1, no-party voters constitute about 813,000 voters, or 27% of the electorate, according to pollster John Couvillon, who conducted surveys for Fleming.

William Vandermeer, a retiree in New Orleans, thought he had changed his registration to no-party to be able to vote for Cassidy on Saturday.

But he learned when he went to vote at a fire station on Norman C. Francis Parkway that he was still listed as a Democrat.

Under the jungle primary, Vandermeer noted he could have voted for Cassidy or any of the other Republican candidates.

Adding to the confusion is Landry’s April 30 decision – following a court order – to cancel the six U.S. House races in Louisiana but proceed with the races for Senate, Public Service Commission, state Supreme Court, Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and local races.

“A lot of people think the whole election has been canceled,” Broussard said. “Voters have been calling all week about that. There wasn’t enough time to get out the word.”

Perret agreed.

“All the education and outreach efforts that all of us put together seem to have made a small dent but not a big dent in voter confusion,” Perret said.

At 2 p.m., he found only 6.9% turnout of Lafayette Parish’s registered voters, leading him to estimate that the overall turnout would be less than 30%.

The office of Secretary of State Nancy Landry is projecting a 28% turnout, which would be a big drop from the typical 50% turnout for past primary elections in non-presidential, even years.

State Rep. Aimee Adatto Freeman, a Democrat who represents Uptown New Orleans, said she found uncertainty when she went to vote Saturday morning at the St. Joan of Arc School on Cambronne Street.

She said she didn’t see a sign telling voters that their vote in the 2nd Congressional District wouldn’t count. Freeman went ahead and voted anyway for U.S. Rep. Troy Carter.

“We need to go back to the jungle primary,” said Freeman, who voted two years ago against moving to the semi-closed party primary.

Andrew Farnsworth, an elections commissioner at Hynes Charter School in the Lakeview neighborhood of New Orleans, said he and others have been able to reset voting machines for no-party voters who chose “no-party” and then emerged irate from the polling booth that they didn’t have a choice in the Senate election.

“It’s slowing things down,” he said, adding that commissioners began taking extra time to explain the new rules to no-party voters beforehand.

Said Judy Chauvin, an election commissioner working another table at Hynes: “If they don’t change the system before the general election, we’re staying home.”