NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana — With just two days before the presidential election a war of words developed between some city leaders in New Orleans and the Louisiana Secretary of State.
It has to do with getting electricity to the polling locations that are impacted by Hurricane Zeta.
A massive effort is underway to restore electricity in Southeast Louisiana, but some confusion is leading to accusations of voter suppression. Some 500 polling places in Southeast Louisiana are believed to be impacted by the hurricane.
Entergy pledges to have those locations fully powered for Tuesday or supply the resources to get them online.
“Whether they be portable generators, lighting, fans so on and so forth, we’ll have the minimum necessary electricity to provide the ability to power the vote wherever they may be,” said Phillip May, President and CEO of Entergy Louisiana.
On Sunday, Mayor Latoya Cantrell’s office issued a statement saying the Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin was refusing to “provide support for generators to power as many as 11 polling sites which may still be without service on Tuesday.” City Council vice president Helena Moreno added her own statement saying the city will confront and counteract “voter suppression”.
Replying to the city’s claims, Ardoin issued his own statement basically saying either Cantrell and Moreno were grossly misinformed or “maliciously attempting a Putinesque spread of misinformation.”
All of this came as a surprise to Arthur Morrell, the clerk of criminal court in who oversees elections in Orleans Parish. Morrell says clearly there’s confusion about generators.
“The Secretary of State was responsible for getting the generators but setting them up and delivering them was something else,” said Morrell.
Morrell says he’s gotten assurances that Entergy will now handle the logistics for those particular generators and all polling sites will be ready for election day. Morrell says just wishes he was notified of any discrepancy.
“Where the confusion part was, I don’t know. I’m supposed to be in there somewhere, since I’m responsible for the election. But they did some things on their own, and I’m glad that they did because it’s resolved, but they should’ve kept me informed on what’s going on,” said Morrell.
The city of New Orleans did not specify where the 11 polling stations in question are located. Morrell says he was unsure which polling places were being disputed…but again, Morrell says all 122 polling sites will have the necessary power for election day.
In Jefferson parish, clerk of court Jon Gegenheimer says all 146 polling sites in Jefferson Parish will have power by Tuesday, including hard hit locations like Grand Isle.
“They are very confident that they’ll be ready for Tuesday, one way or the other. Either all the polling locations will be up running or those that aren’t will have generator power,” said Gegenheimer.
That is the plan…now it must be executed by Tuesday for one of the most anticipated elections in recent history.
