Qualifying for the statewide election begins next week and are voters paying attention to the races that are developing for governor and the other open statewide seats, attorney general, state treasurer, and secretary of state. JMC Analytics and Polling pollster John Couvillon doubts we’ll see the same interest as we did in 1983 when 53-percent of the registered voters went to the polls for the Edwin Edwards-Dave Treen gubernatorial race
“I take that as a generic lack of intense interest as opposed to 1983. The last election where I remember every single race was interesting to voters. You had lots of people running.”
Couvillon says there’s not a lot of clapping and cheering for the governor’s race where Attorney General Jeff Landry is the front runner and one of five Republicans running for office. Typically there’s a 45 to 50 percent turnout for a gubernatorial election. He says the numbers are currently at the lower end of that spectrum…
“Which is 40 percent. Back when John Kennedy got elected in December 2016 you actually had a 29 percent turnout which that’s the lowest I could think of for a major office.”
Couvillon expects interest will grow as we get closer to the October 14th primary.
“As we get into the home stretch after qualifying and people are back in school and so forth I think there will be a more of an organic tuning into the statewide elections.”
Early voting is scheduled from September 30th through October 7th.
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