What to Expect in Louisiana on Election Day – American Press

Louisiana voters will decide which presidential candidates will receive their eight electoral votes in the Nov. 5 election. Also on the ballot are U.S. House races and a pair of statewide ballot measures.

The state has been reliably Republican in presidential races since 2000, and much of the state — outside of larger metropolitan areas like New Orleans and Baton Rouge — has gone GOP. Fewer and fewer Louisianans are registered Democrats, while the number of GOP voters has grown.

Four of the state’s six House districts are considered safe for Republicans. The 5th is a New Orleans-based 2nd District that is safe for Democrats. A new wrinkle is the 6th Circuit, the second majority black circuit at the heart of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in May. Two members of the House GOP leadership, Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, are up for re-election.

Louisiana is unique in that the Nov. 5 election is an open primary for non-presidential races. That means the state has yet to hold a primary to narrow the field of candidates for offices other than president.

To win a seat on November 5, the top candidate must receive at least 50% of the vote plus one. If no candidate reaches that mark, the top two vote-getters will go to a Dec. 7 runoff, known as the Louisiana general election. At least three people participate in all but one race.

Democratic votes may be concentrated in the earliest and lateest counts on election night. At the start of the night, mail-in ballots and early in-person votes are tallied centrally and released as a single section, usually as the first report. Mail-in ballots have traditionally been skewed toward Democratic candidates, though the gap is narrowing. Toward the end of the night, vote counts from New Orleans and East Baton Rouge — Democratic strongholds — typically trailed many other parishes. The question is usually what the impact of these early and late bursts of votes will be for Democrats in an increasingly Republican state.

AP does not make predictions and will only announce a winner when it determines that there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. If the race is not declared, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy events, such as candidate concessions or victory declarations. In this way, AP will clarify that it has not yet announced a winner and explain why.

Here’s what to expect in the 2024 elections in Louisiana:

Election Day

November 5.

Poll closing time

8 in the evening

Presidential Electoral Votes

8 are awarded to a state winner.

Key races and candidates

President: Harris (D) vs. Trump (R) vs. Robert Kennedy Jr. (Independent) vs. Chase Oliver (Libertarian) vs. Jill Stein (Green) vs. Cornel West (Justice for All) and four others.

Other races of interest

US House of Representatives and voting.

Past presidential results

2020: Trump (R) 58%, Biden (D) 40%. AP Race Talk: Tuesday, November 3, 2020, 9:00 PM ET.

Voter registration and turnout

Registered voters: 3,019,315 (as of October 1, 2024). About 38% Democrat, 35% Republican and 28% other.

Voter turnout in the 2020 presidential election: 69% of registered voters.

Voting on election day

Votes cast before Election Day 2020: about 46% of the total vote.

Votes Cast Before Election Day 2024: See AP’s Early Voting Tracker.

How long does it take to count the votes?

First votes counted, November 3, 2020: 9:06 PM ET

By midnight ET: About 88% of all votes cast had been counted.