Louisiana

Questions remain about new election laws that take effect this week • Louisiana Illuminator

Published

2 years ago

July 31, 2024

Questions remain about new election laws that take effect this week • Louisiana Illuminator

A slate of new Louisiana election laws set to take effect Thursday could disenfranchise voters and be used to levy unfounded allegations of fraud, voter advocacy groups say.

Earlier this year the state’s GOP-dominated Legislature passed several laws at the behest of new Louisiana Secretary of State Nancy Landry, who is also a Republican. Bill authorities invoked the Republican catch phrase “strengthening election integrity,” though authorities have never found evidence of widespread voter fraud in Louisiana or elsewhere in the United States.

The laws have opened the door for state officials to enact stricter guidelines for third-party groups to hold voter registration drives and stricter requirements for voters to prove citizenship. They also could make it easier for authorities to criminalize certain acts as voter fraud. But there are also some unknowns about the new laws that have advocates anxious with only about three months left before the November elections.

This November, Louisiana voters will get to decide on the presidential election, six congressional seats, a state Supreme Court judgeship, and a constitutional amendment related to the use of energy revenues.

Among the new election laws taking effect is House Bill 506, sponsored by Rep. Polly Thomas, R-Metairie. It will require any non-governmental groups to first sign up with the Louisiana Secretary of State before holding any voter registration drives.

Former mayor of New Orleans and current Urban League President Marc Morial said he thinks most of Landry’s legislative agenda will only make it harder to vote or decrease voter turnout.

“I think you should have penalties for people who commit fraud … [but] it shouldn’t be hard to register people to vote,” Morial said in a phone interview. “ … It sounds like some kind of Soviet-era control.”

While many voter advocacy groups have criticized Thomas’ bill as a voter suppression tactic, Landry cited an incident of lost registration forms as the impetus for the legislation while testifying at a March 21 House and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing.

During last year’s election, an organization failed to turn in several dozen voter registration forms that high school students had filled out. The students later showed up to vote and were told they had never been registered. Landry’s office investigated the issue and learned what happened. A volunteer from the group that held the registration drive had left the forms in the trunk of someone’s car and forgot to turn them in, she said.

Landry said Thomas’ bill will allow election officials to keep track of voter registration drives and contact volunteers to make sure they fill out forms correctly and turn them in.

However, several unanswered questions remain about what all will be required of the groups: What information will be required from them? Will they be required to sign up with the Secretary of State in person? How long will their registration be valid? Does every member of a group need to register?

“That’s actually the biggest problem,” Peter Robins-Brown, executive director of Louisiana Progress, said. “It’s that a lot of those laws were very vague … They should have had those answers laid out before they introduced the bill.”

Landry’s spokesman Joel Watson said the office will be releasing guidance that should answer many of those questions before the law takes effect Thursday.

Louisiana legislation targets mail-in absentee voting as it gains in popularity

“This law is not about individuals or groups receiving clearance from our office or the [registrars of voters] but registering their drive so that they can be contacted when needed,” Watson said.

The Urban League held its national conference in New Orleans last week and included courses on voter registration training. The organization publishes state-specific guides on voter registration laws and could have to make changes to Louisiana’s guide after Thursday.

Robins-Brown said he is also concerned about what the penalties might be for those who violate the law by failing to register. He said he is most concerned for small neighborhood associations and individuals involved in loosely organized civic engagement activities that include helping their neighbors get registered to vote.

“You just can’t expect the average person to know all of these rules or at least know them in detail,” Robins-Brown said. “At what point does my attempt to register my neighbors go from an act of civic engagement to a violation or a crime of voter fraud?”

Thomas’ bill did not establish criminal penalties, though lawmakers passed a separate measure that does criminalize other acts.

Senate Bill 420, sponsored by Sen. Valarie Hodges, R-Denham Springs, expands the state crime of election fraud with several new provisions to encompass a wider variety of acts. The crime carries a penalty of up to two years in prison.

Most of the new provisions align with typical voter fraud crimes such as forging a ballot or attempting to vote more than once. Others, however, are more vague, including a provision that apparently makes it a crime to forge, alter, take or destroy “election supplies.”

Another provision makes it a crime to possess an official ballot in violation of any provision of the Louisiana Election Code.

House Bill 476, sponsored by Rep. Josh Carlson, R-Lafayette, prohibits a person from mailing more than one absentee ballot for a voter who isn’t an immediate family member. Similarly, Senate Bill 218, sponsored by Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, R-Port Allen, prohibits the same act with regard to mailing the application form for an absentee ballot for more than one voter who isn’t an immediate family member. It also makes it a crime to give an absentee ballot application form to two or more people who are not immediate family members.

Landry, while testifying in support of Kleinpeter’s bill in March, said allowing unknown individuals to collect unlimited numbers of ballot applications would give them access to the voter’s name and address and therefore allow them to “harass and intimidate voters” into voting a certain way.

The secretary of state’s office has cited three incidents as evidence of election fraud, though none revealed evidence of widespread wrongdoing among voters. Two of the incidents involved a vote-buying scheme by politicians from the same small town — Amite City.

The third occurred in a 2018 local election in Acadia Parish, where a woman assisting two elderly voters allegedly failed to mark their absentee ballots as directed. The Crowley woman was convicted on a single misdemeanor charge and received two years probation. Authorities never disclosed how she marked the ballots.

None of the incidents affected the outcome of the respective elections.

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Louisiana

National Guard deployment in New Orleans extended for six months

Published

2 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

National Guard deployment in New Orleans extended for six months

NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana National Guard announced Monday that 120 troops will remain deployed in New Orleans through August.

The six-month extension comes after 350 Guard members deployed to New Orleans in late December, in the run-up to New Year’s and other high-profile events like the Sugar Bowl. The troops, which had mainly clustered in the city’s historic French Quarter, had been scheduled to depart in the aftermath of Mardi Gras.

New Orleans is one of several Democrat-run cities, such as Washington and Memphis, Tennessee, where the federal government deployed armed troops under the administration of President Donald Trump. Hundreds of federal agents also converged on Louisiana in December as part of a separate immigration crackdown in and around New Orleans.

During his State of the Union address last week, Trump touted the deployment in New Orleans as a “big success.” In January, Trump credited the troops with reducing the city’s violent crime within a week of their deployment. City police data shows violent crime rates have significantly declined over the past three years in parallel with national trends.

According to a press statement from the Louisiana National Guard, the remaining guard members will serve as a “visible presence to deter criminal activity in New Orleans.”

New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno, a Democrat who initially opposed the deployment, said that the troops would benefit the city in the coming weeks. She pointed out that National Guard troops had assisted the city during last year’s Mardi Gras in the aftermath of a vehicle-ramming attack in the French Quarter that killed 14 people on New Year’s Day.

“I continue to support the partnership with the LA National Guard to assist in our major events and there are several coming up in the next few weeks,” Moreno said in a statement.

While Moreno did not address which events she referred to, visitors flock to New Orleans in the spring for events like the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican and staunch Trump ally, requested the deployment of the National Guard last September, citing rising violent crime rates in New Orleans despite the data showing crime was down.

“This continued deployment will help us combat violence in New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana,” Landry wrote on the social platform X on Monday, noting Louisiana had also sent National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., last year.

Kate Kelly, a spokesperson for Landry, said the federal government would cover the cost of the extended deployment. She did not respond to a question about whether Guard members would be deployed outside New Orleans.

Maj. Gen. Thomas Friloux, adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard, said in a statement the troops had already worked closely with other city, state and federal agencies to improve public safety during a stretch of high-profile events in the city, including the flood of visitors over Mardi Gras and the city’s carnival season.

“We remain committed to those partnerships as we continue supporting efforts to keep the City of New Orleans safe for residents and visitors,” Friloux said.

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Louisiana

Jury selection begins Monday in one of Louisiana’s largest auto insurance fraud cases

Published

14 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Jury selection begins Monday in one of Louisiana’s largest auto insurance fraud cases

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Jury selection begins Monday in what prosecutors describe as one of the largest auto insurance fraud cases in Louisiana history, with two local attorneys set to stand trial on charges that include fraud and obstruction of justice.

Attorneys Vanessa Motta and Jason Giles are accused in an alleged scheme in which drivers — referred to as “slammers” — were paid to intentionally crash into 18-wheelers, file injury lawsuits and allow attorneys to collect the settlements. Both have pleaded not guilty.

63 people have been charged in the case. Many have already pleaded guilty. Motta and Giles are being tried together.

Criminal defense attorney Craig Mordock, who is not directly involved in the case but has been following it closely, said the scope of the litigation is significant.

“You have 10 years of personal injury cases and almost… almost a billion dollars in recovery. That’s all at issue,” Mordock said. “So yeah, this could go two to three weeks.”

Motta’s defense team has advanced a narrative that she was manipulated by a co-defendant.

“There is a compelling narrative that’s been advanced by Vanessa Motta’s lawyer in terms of her being manipulated by one of the co-defendants… about being manipulated by him and him having a prior federal conviction for fraud,” Mordock said.

Motta’s team originally claimed she did not know the crashes were staged. In 2024, her team told FOX 8 she is the victim.

Mordock said Giles faces a more difficult defense.

“I don’t see a favorable juror for one of the other lawyer defendants, Jason Giles. There’s not a clear theory of innocence. This is basically a standard white-collar prosecution where knowledge and intent are going to be the issue,” Mordock said.

The case carries what Mordock described as a shadow. In September 2020, key witness Cornelious Garrison was killed in New Orleans four days after his name appeared in an indictment. Garrison’s admitted killer, Ryan Harris, is expected to testify.

The judge in the case is also allowing the slain witness’s recorded descriptions of the alleged scheme to be admitted at trial.

Mordock said Louisiana drivers have a direct stake in the outcome.

“As your average Louisianan, the idea would be you would save… because the people committing this fraud have been wrapped up. The insurance companies are going to know how to look for this,” Mordock said.

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Louisiana

Pervy mayor’s kids told cops that they caught her romping with teen boy at boozy pool party

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Pervy mayor’s kids told cops that they caught her romping with teen boy at boozy pool party

The children of a disgraced Louisiana mayor told cops that they both caught their mom fooling around with a 16-year-old boy at a boozy pool party, according to video played at her rape trial.

Misty Roberts, the 43-year-old former head of DeRidder, Louisiana — population 9,8000 — faces a charge of third-degree rape over the 2024 incident.

Roberts’ son told investigators in an interview played for jurors that he saw his mom having sex with his pal through a crack in a window.

Misty Roberts is accused of having sex with a 16-year-old boy in 2024.

But, when asked about his recollection, he demurred — telling the court he wasn’t exactly sure what he saw that night, according to KPLC.

The jury also reviewed pictures from the party, which showed kids holding drinks as well as a photograph of Roberts and the victim that prosecutors described as “lewd.”

That picture showed Roberts at the party in her bikini, with the teen victim looking up at her smiling.

Roberts’ son texted his mom that night, incredulous about what was happening, and told her that his sister was crying, according to messages presented by prosecutors.

“He is seventeen,” the son texted Roberts.

The boy was later confirmed to be 16 years old, according to KPLC.

Roberts’ daughter also took the stand while prosecutors played her interview with detectives, in which she said she saw her mom and the boy “on top of each other” that night.

The former mayor’s nephew also admitted he tried to sneak a peek — using his phone to try and get a peek at what was going on in the room. He testified that he wasn’t sure if he hit “record” — but if he did said he never sent it to anybody.

Roberts was in her second term as mayor when she resigned. 7 KPLC

None of the three witnesses who testified said they saw the “private parts” of Roberts and the victim. The teen boy, they noted though, was shirtless.

After the alleged tryst, the victim’s mother texted Roberts to ensure that she was not pregnant, to which she replied she was on birth control. Roberts shared a screenshot of that message to a group chat with her friends, who urged her to take Plan B.

A DoorDash driver testified that he delivered an emergency contraceptive to Roberts’ house, which he recognized from trick-or-treating with his children there.

In other texts shown in court, Roberts asked her son what kind of alcohol her son and other kids wanted for the party.

Days after police launched their investigation into the alleged crime, Roberts resigned as mayor of DeRidder, a city of just under 10,000 people about 20 miles east of the Texas border.

Roberts was charged with third-degree rape and contributing to the delinquency of juveniles.

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