Voting started out slowly in Calcasieu Parish due to poor weather, but picked up once the sun came out. By 3:45 p.m. today, turnout remained steady, with no major lines at any particular precinct, Calcasieu Clerk of Court Lynn Jones says.
Nearly 20,000 of the 124,000 (about 16%) voters in Calcasieu Parish cast their ballots early in October.
“I’m predicting anywhere from 35-42% turnout total. So that only leaves about 25% to vote today,” Jones says, and confirms there were no polling location changes this election cycle. Calcasieu Parish has 123 voting precincts and 76 polling locations.
“After Hurricane Laura, we had to change [polling locations] all the time because they were going through different levels of redoing, construction, all that stuff,” Jones says.
Jones has been traveling around the parish to address what he called “typical issues,” such as campaign signs too close to a polling place.
“We only have one super watcher for Letlow,” Jones says, adding that there are no federal election monitors or regular poll monitors present at Calcasieu Parish voting locations.
A super watcher is someone who can move from precinct to precinct within a parish to monitor polling locations, Jones says, while a regular poll watcher is restricted to a specific assigned precinct. Political candidates are entitled by state law to send out a poll watcher on their behalf.
Jones says federal monitors are present in Lafayette, East Baton Rouge, and New Orleans.
