NEW ORLEANS — Organizers seeking to force a recall election for New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell have reached an agreement with state election leaders to set a number of required signatures needed for a vote.
Lawyers for the NOLATOYA.org group and Louisiana's Secretary of State's Office met virtually with Judge Jennifer Medley to discuss the agreement.
According to state law, the recall petition must gather signatures of 20 percent of registered, active voters in a parish to be considered valid. Initially, organizers sought over 52,000 signatures, based on state figures showing more than 264,000 registered voters. But research led to the target being lowered to somewhere between 49,000 and 50,000 because some of the voters are deemed inactive for reasons such as not having voted in multiple elections.
Recall organizers have gone to court to have the number lowered even further. They say the Orleans Parish voter registrar has failed to cull hundreds of dead voters from the active rolls — and close to 30,000 people who have moved from the city. That could lower the threshold by around 6,000 voters.
On Wednesday, the lawyers said the agreement would move 25,000 voters from active to inactive.
Any agreement between the parties to end the lawsuit would have to be approved by the judge.
The registrar has 20 days to certify signatures and then, if enough are verified, send it to Gov. John Bel Edwards. Edwards would have 15 days to set an election. It's possible a recall could go on the state's April 29 ballot. But, there are numerous unknowns — including how many signatures will or won't be deemed legitimate, and any legal challenges Cantrell might make.
Even though inactive voters can still vote in elections, Cantrell and others opposing the recall effort have painted the negotiations with Republican Sec. of State Kyle Ardoin's Office as an effort to disenfranchise voters.
"It's evident this recall is not about me. It's about disenfranchisement of particularly Black voters in this community," Cantrell said Wednesday. "It should alarm every voter in this community. It's a civil rights issue."
Dr. Ed Chervenak from the University of New Orleans said that inactive voters can still vote, but they would be required to prove their address. He said he doubts that moving voters from active to inactive would impact future elections like the race for governor.
"They're not asking for voters to be purged. They're asking for their status to be changed from active to inactive," Chervenak said.
In a statement to the media, NOLATOYA.org group said that no voters will be removed from voter rolls.
"Not one single voter in Orleans Parish will be removed from the voter rolls pursuant to the consent judgement that was entered today in court," the organization said. "The voters who will be placed on the inactive list have moved outside of Orleans Parish and have notified the US Post Office of such or have died. As testified in court, any voter who is on the inactive list can vote in any election pursuant to La. R.S. 18:196."
Council member Helena Moreno called on the Secretary of State's office to provide "full transparency" on the legal methodology used to determine the number of active voters in New Orleans.
"Whatever effort there is to reclassify voters as active or inactive needs to be done legally and transparently, and should be made clear that voters are not being purged," Moreno said.
Moreno said she is also calling on the Orleans Registrar of Voters to release information regarding how the recall forms will be certified and secured.
"Lack of transparency by public officials only leads to the appearance of potential tampering and fuels concerns of outside political interests attempting to interfere with the process," Moreno said.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.