Early voting for the parishwide December 8 runoff election came to a close last Saturday with a total of 586 parish residents casting their votes in person at the Evangeline Parish Registrar of Voters office and by mail.
The total number of individuals who voted in person at the Evangeline Parish Registrar of Voters Office was 486, while 100 votes were cast by mail-in ballots. The break down of voters by political party show 332 Democrats, 197 Republicans and 57 other cast their vote early for the upcoming election. There were 286 male voters compared to 300 females.
A break down of how many people have voted in person and absentee in each ward is as follows: Ward 1 (Ville Platte, Chataignier), 319; Ward 2 (Basile), 16; Ward 3 (Mamou), 184; Ward 4 (Pine Prairie, Beaver), 36; and Ward 5 (Turkey Creek, Bayou Chicot), 31.
Voters in Mamou will head to the polls this Saturday to cast their votes in a runoff election for chief of police between incumbent Brent Zackery and challenger Charles Perdices and for secretary of state between incumbent Kyle Ardoin and challenger Gwen Collins-Greenup.
Voters in Evangeline Parish outside of the Mamou corporate limits will only be voting for secretary of state.
The low early voting numbers across Evangeline Parish are in line with such numbers across the state as 31,000 early votes were cast in Louisiana over the first two days. According to JMC Analytics Pollster John Couvillon, the numbers are a drastic drop off following the near historic early voting numbers preceding the November 6 election.
Couvillon said, “A lot of people really just aren’t engaged in this (secretary of state) race because of the fact that it is over the holiday season, and it’s a special election, and very little money has been raised as well.”
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TONY MARKS Associate Editor