BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana has a unique way of electing public officials.
The so-called “jungle primaries” put candidates from all party affiliations on the same ballot.
If a candidate gets a majority of the vote, they win the office.
If not, the two top vote-getters advance to a runoff election.
Gov. Jeff Landry has now included a measure to close the state’s open primary system on the call for next week’s special legislative session.
Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, questions whether such a shift in the way elections are held here is needed.
'No position has been made as to why we would change it, so I would want to hear what the reasons would be, but at this time I have no desire to change it,” Duplessis said.
In a closed system, each party has its own primary election, with the winning Democrat and Republican moving on to face each other.
Independent voters can only cast ballots in the general election.
Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, isn’t sure what it would cost or how long it would take to implement the change.
“It’s what most other states do and if the theory is their judicial system is better, their elections are better and more efficient and on the federal side, our members would get sworn in the same time that everyone else in the country was,” Henry said.
A recent poll conducted by JMC Analytics for a national group that favors open primaries showed Louisiana voters are satisfied with the current system by a 65 to 20 percent margin.
“It’s a system that is overwhelmingly popular with Louisianian regardless of race of party and you’re talking about the potential of creating a massive culture shift,” JMC President John Couvillion said.
But Couvillion admits you can’t discount the power of a new governor in what could be an early strength test for Jeff Landry.
Also, on the call for next week’s special session, lawmakers will attempt to re-draw Congressional and state Supreme Court maps.
The new boundries would include new black-majority districts.
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