Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin made a surprise announcement today, he’s not seeking reelection. The Republican has served since 2018 after Tom Schedler resigned over a sexual harassment case. LaPolitics.com publisher Jeremy Alford said Ardoin has faced several emotional debates over election security.
“We’ve seen election integrity become an issue. We’ve seen voters in our own state confused about how votes are tabulated and how these voting contracts come about, and they’ve caused a lot of heartburn,” said Alford.
Just last month Ardoin told Louisiana Radio Network he was running for a second full term.
In addition to handling election changes for COVID and hurricanes, Alford said Ardoin has been unsuccessful in getting lawmakers to approve new voting machines.
“He was supposed to be overseeing a very controversial contract involving voting machines which really got swept up in all this kind of angst about election integrity and some of the misinformation that was out there,” said Alford.
Alford said Ardoin was criticized for expanding mail-in balloting for the presidential election by fellow Republicans and the election fraud movement.
“But that’s not the party line anymore and when you’re an official who came up that way, and that’s really supposed to be your job it really makes for a hostile work environment,” said Alford.
Republicans, Businessman Brandon Trosclair, and PSC Commissioner Mike Francis have declared their candidacy and Speaker of the House Clay Schexnayder is also expected to run.
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