LOUISIANA, USA — Early voting is officially over in Louisiana. The last day to early vote was Oct. 29.
Dozens of people lined up at the Tremé Community Center Tuesday in the final hours.
Orleans Parish Registrar of Voters Chief Deputy, Danielle Duplessis-Hammond, was there to let them in.
“Today the crowd picked up pretty heavy for us. We got a lot of first-time voters, both young and old, which was interesting to see," Duplessis-Hammond said.
As of Tuesday evening, the Secretary of State's Office reported more than a quarter of registered voters cast their ballots early.
Political Analyst, Ron Faucheux, said high early voting turnout points to three things.
First, it can signal a high turnout on Election Day. Second, people may be afraid of long lines on Election Day, Faucheux said.
“A lot of republicans four years ago didn’t vote early because Donald Trump told them not to vote early, and now he’s saying, and the republican campaign is saying to go vote early," Faucheux said.
During the 2020 presidential election, Louisiana had a 70 percent voter turnout. But this time last year, only 36 percent of voters cast their ballots for governor.
“We would like to see 100 percent turnout for all of our elections, but this election has seen quite a bit of traffic flow," Duplessis-Hammond said.
Presidential elections almost always drive voter turnout, but it's clear this year's race is uncertain.
“All the ingredients are there for this election to go on for some time in terms of lawsuits and recounts because it looks like it’s going to be very close in these seven swing states which could determine the winner," Faucheux said.
Louisiana is not a swing state to watch, but like the rest of the country, we could be waiting on the national results for several days.
Your next opportunity to cast your ballot in person will be on election day. Absentee ballots must be requested from the Secretary of State by November 1st and turned in by 4:30 p.m. on November 4th.
The Secretary of State has also said that on Thursday, Oct. 31 at 2 p.m., its website will display mock results. These are only for testing purposes ahead of Election Day, and they do not reflect any real results.
► 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.