It seems Louisiana missed the memo that the state elections were last Saturday.
Attorney General Jeff Landry received 51.6% of the vote, however only about 36% of Louisiana’s registered voters actually participated in the election, according to the Secretary of State. That means out of around 3 million registered voters, only about 500,000 voted in Landry as governor.
The turnout was even worse in New Orleans. 27% of voters in Orleans Parish actually showed up to vote, resulting in only about 71,000 votes in the governor’s election. A vast majority of those votes went to Democrat Shawn Wilson.
Those numbers are even worse than New Orleans’ 2021 mayoral elections, which had a voter turnout of 29.1%. At the time, those numbers had been excused due to recovery from Hurricane Ida, according to New Orleans WDSU.
Alec Ricci, a senior political science major, sees the problem differently. The people in his age group do not feel that they are represented in government, state or federal, according to Ricci.
“I think it comes down to an issue of inclusion while also reflecting public goals and intentions,” Ricci said.
Caleb Giraud, another political science major, views the low turnout as a response to corruption in state government. The kickbacks political players create are akin to Huey Long, Louisiana’s 40th governor, although to a much lesser degree, according to Giraud.
Giraud also mentioned that distrust in the federal government could be another cause for low voter turnout, as the distrust for the nation trickles down to the state level.
“We’re seeing a lot of the same problems in the federal government,” Giraud said. “[Politicians] don’t want to play to their base, they want to play to the people that are paying them.”
“We already have this incredibly low trust for the government in Louisiana, which is just getting pounded into the ground by the federal atmosphere which is then reflecting in the state atmosphere which is, I think, why you don’t see as many voters because what are you going to do for me anyway? You haven’t done anything for me so far,” Giraud said.
