NEW ORLEANS — There are only six days left till the 2024 election, early voting is now closed.
Louisiana Secretary of State numbers show 960,561 votes have been cast early. Of that, 849,784 people showed up to a poll in person, and 110,777 cast absentee ballots so far.
Dr. Ed Chervenak, a political expert at UNO says it's normal to see a surge in people voting on the last day of early voting. He says what was different this election cycle was, who was voting early.
Dr. Chervenak said, "80,000 fewer democrats early voted this time around compared to 70,000 more republicans."
He and Political Analyst Ron Faucheux say there's a reason behind this, he said, "Republicans didn't intentionally vote early four years ago and now many of them are intentionally voting early."
He went on to say, "Four years ago, Donald Trump told his supporters not to vote early, so many of them did not. This time told them to vote early."
Faucheux says this big number of early votes could mean we see a big turnout on election day, saying, "It doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to have more democrats or republicans vote, it just means when they vote is changing."
Both analysts say Louisiana is not a swing state, so we can expect votes back much quicker than other states.
Election day is Nov. 5 . Absentee ballots must be requested from the Secretary of State by Nov. 1 and turned in by 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 4 .
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