After a fairly lackluster campaign for governor, in which even the media took scant notice, voters flocked to the polls Saturday in record numbers on the first day they could cast their ballots for the Nov. 16 runoff election.
The Secretary of State’s Office counted 89,623 early votes – the highest first day early voting turnout ever, about 2,500 votes more even than the benchmark 2016 presidential election. Faith-based groups around the state may have contributed to the increase.
“It’s up 16 percent, and that is a good indication that people are more engaged in this runoff,” pollster Edward Chervenak, of Edgewater Research in New Orleans, told The Advocate Sunday. “We’re seeing a lot more enthusiasm by African Americans.”
The numbers of early voters increased dramatically in some locales: up 87% in New Orleans, 57% in Baton Rouge, doubling in Shreveport and up 77% in Alexandria – all areas in which incumbent Gov. John Bel Edwards did well during primary voting and needs to do better in the runoff to offset rival Eddie Rispone’s Republicans who have been energized by President Donald Trump and a national GOP intent on denying a second term to the Deep South’s only Democratic governor.
John Couvillon, a Baton Rouge pollster with JMC Analytics & Polling and who has studied early voting trends for years, said the first returns show higher turnout for whites and Republicans, but the most dramatic jump was among black voters and Democrats.
In terms of who voted on the first day, when compared to the primary, the returns statewide showed 66% were white and 31% were black, most of whom are Democrats. They accounted for 25% of the early voters on the first day of early voting in the primary. Democratic voters were 45% to 39% Republicans on the first day. Turnout for voters of other ethnicities and those not registered with one of the two major parties were down by about 11% when compared to the primary's first day of early voting.