BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Preliminary statewide voter registration totals show that at least 2.92 million Louisianians will be eligible to vote Nov. 6 when the race for U.S. president tops the ballot.
Election officials tell The Advocate on Wednesday the numbers mean there are already about 100,000 more eligible voters today than on the rolls for last October's governor's race.
The numbers mean there are already about 100,000 more eligible voters today than on the rolls for last October's governor's race.
The preliminary total is slightly less than the 2.94 million who were eligible to vote in the presidential election four years ago, according to statewide voter statistics.
Secretary of State Tom Schedler said the preliminary number will go up between now and the Oct. 23 the start of early voting as last-minute registrants are counted.
"I would anticipate something close to 2008," Schedler said. "It could easily bump up 10,000 to 15,000 voters."
The voter numbers already surpass the 2.84 million eligible to vote in last fall's statewide elections in which the governor's race led the ballot.
Besides the race for U.S. president, the Nov. 6 election features congressional as well as a number of local and regional elections and ballot initiatives. There are nine proposed constitutional amendments and school board term limit propositions in most parishes.
Preliminary figures indicate that the number of registered Democrats continued to decline as Republican and other party registrations increased between 2008 and 2012.
Statistics show Democrats with 1.4 million registrants, a decline of about 136,000 from four years ago. Meanwhile, Republicans gained about 60,000 from 744,000 in 2008 and those aligned with other parties grew by some 50,000 from about 650,000 four years ago, according to election statistics.