US District Judge Shelly Dick has ruled against the Secretary of State’s election plan that rolled back much of the summer’s mail-in balloting opportunities.
Dick said the limited absentee access approved by the Legislature imposes a burden on a person’s right to vote during a pandemic. Governor John Bel Edwards agrees.
“You have a constitutional right to vote and you shouldn’t have to compromise your health or the health of someone you know to do that,” said Edwards.
Under Ardoin’s plan, the only COVID-related reason for requesting an absentee ballot is that if you test positive for the virus during early voting or before Election Day.
The plan was backed by the Legislature but rejected by Edwards who raised concerns the proposal made no considerations for those with co-morbid conditions and did not take into account those who had been told to quarantine because they were a close contact of a COVID-positive individual.
The summer plan allowed people to request absentee ballots if they or someone in their household were high-risk COVID individuals, or if they were diagnosed with, or feeling symptoms of COVID-19. The judge ordered Louisiana to reinstate the summer election plan. Edwards said that’s not an undue burden.
“This is really measured, it’s just go back to doing what you did in July and August. So she is not telling the Secretary of State to conduct an election in a manner that he has not already done it twice,” said Edwards.
Ardoin, in a statement, responded saying “A decision as to how to proceed will be made after careful consideration of the facts is weighed with the fact that absentee voting currently underway for some voters, and early voting mere weeks away.”
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