Louisiana has seen record numbers of early voting turnout so far for the Presidential Election.
JMC Analytics pollster John Couvillon said anecdotes of voters waiting in long lines to cast an early ballot are strongly supported by the data.
“We have already crossed the quarter-million mark and after a comparable period, in other words, two days of early voting in the 2016 election, 163,000 had voted,” said Couvillon.
Early voting is available at select locations throughout the state and runs through October 27th. Polls are open from 8 AM to 7 PM Monday through Saturday.
Couvillon also noted Louisiana is following a national trend in that Democrats appear to be fired up and are early voting in disproportionately higher numbers than Republicans.
“More specifically after two days in the Presidential Election four years ago the electorate was 26 percent black it was 34 percent black as of last night,” said Couvillon.
53 percent of Louisiana’s first-day early voters were Democrats. Statewide Democrats make up 40 percent of the electorate.
Couvillon estimated as much as 40 percent of the vote could be cast before Election Day and overall we could see sky-high participation.
“Turnout was 68 percent four years ago and right now I am saying 74, so it is definitely going to be a more robust year,” said Couvillon.
Couvillon said more than 100,000 people have already voted by mail, three times the volume we saw four years ago.
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