Early voting begins Friday in Louisiana and wraps up October 27th. You can’t vote Sundays, but Monday through Saturday polls open at 8 am and close at 7 pm. There’s a lot of interest in the November 3rd election but Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin says don’t assume the worst when you see a long line.
“I encourage folks to not pay attention to the lines, because they’re going to look longer in terms of a Presidential because of social distancing. I wouldn’t drive by and be discouraged,” said Ardoin.
Due to the pandemic, you could be eligible to vote absentee and Ardoin encourages you to make the request as soon as possible. Ardoin says if you have an underlying health condition you can request an application to vote absentee, along with other reasons.
“If you’re taking care of someone and aren’t able to get out to vote in person you can ask for a COVID-19 absentee ballot. And then also if you are in the process of being diagnosed for COVID-19 then you can request and absentee ballot,” said Ardoin.
Ardoin says 201,000 mail ballots have been requested statewide. The deadline to request a ballot by mail is October 30th and the mail ballot must be received by the end of the day on November second.
Voters displaced by the hurricanes can visit the Secretary of State’s website for detailed information on how to cast their ballot this year. Ardoin says time is of the essence.
“We ask them to quickly go online, apply for an absentee ballot, so they can get their ballot and get it returned as quickly as possible to the registrars voters so their vote can be counted,” says Ardoin.
Ardoin also recommends using the Geaux Vote App before driving to the polls because some locations have been changed for COVID mitigation efforts. You can visit www.sos.la.gov for more information.
Reported by Brooke Thorington
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