Early voting numbers break record

Early voting for the November 3 election ended Tuesday, October 27, and broke the record which was set in 2008.
Here in Evangeline Parish, a total of 5,177 voters cast their early ballots. Of that number, 4,550 voted in person at the Evangeline Parish Registrar of Voters Office, and 627 voted by mail. The total number of early voters represents a near 24% of the registered voters in the parish.
The total number of early votes also dwarfed the number from four years ago when President Donald Trump won election over Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton. In 2016, 3,221 Evangeline Parish residents cast their votes early.
The Thursday, November 3, 2016, edition of the Ville Platte Gazette reported, “That is 411 more in-person votes than the early voting period for the 2012 Presidential Election between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. In fact, the 3,221 in-person votes also surpasses the grand total of early votes from 2012, which includes both in-person voting and absentee voting.”
Before this year, the record was set in 2008 when 3,833 residents voted before Election Day here in the parish. That election was highlighted by a presidential race between eventual winner Barack Obama and Republican challenger John McCain, a Ward 1 School Tax, a district attorney race between Trent Brignac and then incumbent Brent Coreil, and an open city marshal position.