Lafayette Parish saw low voter turnout during Saturday election
Lafayette Parish on Saturday recorded its lowest voter turnout rate for a gubernatorial primary since 2011, unofficial data from the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office shows, with turnout falling sharply from the last primary in 2019.
Nearly every parish saw voter turnout fall for Saturday’s election compared to 2019, when Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, was running for reelection against two Republicans, then-U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham and businessman Eddie Rispone. For that primary election, about 44.3% of Lafayette Parish voters went to the polls.
But on Saturday, a little more than a third of Lafayette Parish turned out.
In the past four gubernatorial primary elections — in 2023, 2019, 2015 and 2011 — Lafayette has tended to have a low voter turnout compared to other parishes, even in years when the state saw high turnout.
For example, in 2019’s October primary, the state’s turnout rate was about 45.9%, which was the highest rate the state had recorded in a gubernatorial primary since 2007. Lafayette Parish’s 44.3%, however, was the 10th-lowest of Louisiana’s 64 parishes.
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Compared to the 2015 primary, Louisiana saw its turnout rate jump about 6.7 percentage-points. While not among the lowest in the state, Lafayette’s increase of 3.9 points was significantly lower than the state overall.
The state overall saw a large decline in turnout on Saturday compared to 2019, and nearly every parish saw turnout rates fall. The state had a rate of 35.8% — a decline of about 10 percentage-points from 2019. Lafayette Parish’s decline wasn’t quite as dramatic but still fell by about 7.6 points.
For Louisiana, this election had the lowest turnout of any gubernatorial primary since at least 1999, which is the earliest year to have official turnout data on the Secretary of State’s website. That year, turnout was about 48.8%.
This election was the lowest for Lafayette Parish since 2011, when it had 34% turnout. Prior to 2011, the parish had three consecutive gubernatorial primaries with at least 44% turnout, including two elections — in 2003 and 1999 — when more than half of the parish’s registered voters went to the polls.
It is possible, though, that Lafayette Parish has a higher turnout rate than the state during the November runoff. The state will almost certainly see turnout fall for the runoff, with Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry winning the governor’s race outright Saturday. Lafayette Parish, meanwhile, has a runoff in its mayor-president race between current Lafayette Mayor-President Josh Guillory and former Acadiana Planning Commission CEO Monique Blanco Boulet.
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Lafayette Parish also had a runoff in the mayor-president race in 2019. During that election, Lafayette Parish saw 51.2% turnout, just edging out the 51.1% statewide for the gubernatorial runoff.
The last time the state did not have a runoff for the governor’s race was in 2011, which saw statewide turnout of 22.5%. Lafayette Parish had a turnout of 22.7% for that election.
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This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Lafayette Parish saw low voter turnout during Saturday election
