NEW ORLEANS — In the first day of hearings, the group trying to recall Mayor Latoya Cantrell says the Orleans Parish voter rolls are inaccurate because they include people who have died or moved, but are still on the rolls.
A lawyer for the registrar of voters says their claims aren't valid because voter rolls change all the time.
The number of voters on the rolls is critical for the group behind the recall.
Blair Condoll from Dillard University says it's likely the numbers are off.
“The number of required signatures for a recall effort is based upon the number of actual registered voters within Orleans Parish,” Condoll said. “There could be more registered voters in New Orleans who have either moved away from the city or is deceased because there are no strict guidelines that state the records have to be purged.”
He says parishes are not required by law to purge, but there are general guidelines.
In Louisiana, residents can be taken off the voter rolls after a few years if their home address can’t be confirmed. A person is classed as an inactive voter if they haven’t voted in two rounds of federal elections.
If you stay on the inactive list for two more federal elections and your address isn’t verified, then your voter registrations are canceled.
The lawyer representing the registrar of voters says the office did its job.
"Prior to August 26, 2022 did Dr. Wilson and the registrar of voters do their job as you'll see and as we have seen today they absolutely did," Ryan Luminais said.
Civil District Court Judge Jennifer Medley rejected the bid to have the case tossed. This means if the organizers do win, election officials will have to conduct a new voter canvass. That will cost a lot of money and could take weeks.
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