Louisiana early voting saw overwhelmingly white, slight GOP voter edge

Early voting in Louisiana saw an overwhelmingly white turnout and a slight Republican edge for the seven-day period that ended Tuesday, according to data from the Secretary of State’s Office.

Election officials tallied 362,929 ballots cast statewide from Oct. 24 through Nov. 1, surpassing the 2018 midterms by about 55,000 votes. Turnout for the final day of the seven-day early voting period saw 53,983 ballots cast.

White voters accounted for about 71% of the total, casting 258,523 ballots while Black voters accounted for about 26%, casting 93,267 ballots.

Republican voters edged out Democrats by roughly 6,500 votes, making up about 43% of the turnout compared to 42% for Democrats.

Louisiana pollster John Couvillon, owner of JMC Analytics & Polling, said the Republican edge is something he has never seen since he started tracking early voting 14 years ago.

“That’s something I haven’t seen before,” Couvillon said. “It’s unusual, but it mirrors what I’ve been seeing in other states.”

Roughly 75% of early voting occurred in-person with 272,199 people showing up to the polls while 25% or 90,730 people voted absentee.