NEW ORLEANS — Edna Karr and L.B. Landry High School students got off the bus at the Algiers Courthouse ready to exercise their right to vote.
“Excited, this was my first vote, so pretty excited and happy,” said first-time voter Diamond Bolds.
“I never really done it before…I’ve been there with parents and stuff and seen them vote and helped them and stuff like that,” said Eddie McKinney, another first-time voter.
Bolds and McKinley were among the Louisiana voters casting ballots in the run-up to the November 5 presidential election.
As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 350,000 have early voted here, either in person or by absentee ballot.
“What we’re seeing is the total number of early voters in this cycle is roughly the same as it was four years ago,” UNO Political Science Professor Dr. Ed Chervenak. “Where we’re really seeing some change is in the voter demographics.”
Chervenak said so far, republicans are outpacing Democrats in Louisiana early voting for the first time.
“A big decline among African Americans and among democrats. A big increase among republicans and whites.”
Professor Chervenak added that two weeks out, the latest polls indicate the race for the White House is tightening. He says that makes it even more important for everyone to get out and vote either early or on election day.
“When it is this close, it’s extremely competitive and that it could come down to a few thousand votes in a state. So, every vote is going to count.
Future leaders from the New Orleans charter schools know it’s important to be counted by letting their voices be heard at the ballot box.
Being young and having an opinion like with everything that’s going on in the world today, we take civics class, so here and everything in school, and it made me feel like I can do it and change what’s going on in the world today,” Bolds said.
Early voting in Louisiana is now open to all registered voters in the state.
You can cast ballots through October 29, excluding Sunday, October 28.
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