Political consultant explains trends, weighs in on Oct. 14 election – WAFB

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – There are dozens of races on the Oct. 14 primary election ballots including governor, attorney general, and treasurer. After early voting, experts found that the enthusiasm this election cycle is low, but there’s still a healthy voter turnout.

Experts found that Louisiana voters have been feeling a lack of excitement at the top of the ticket as it relates to the governor’s race. They said statewide races have lacked that pizzazz that Louisiana politics have been known for.

Political Consultant Clay Young said turnout has been lower this year in comparison to four years ago, and then four years before that. He’s interested to see how many of these statewide races make it to a runoff.

Many races only have one Democrat in it and if this goes the way history has gone, Young said you would normally see a Democrat and a Republican in the runoff because the Democrat would go to the Democrat on the ballot.

Because name recognition is so low among candidates, even the candidates for governor, he wonders how motivated people are to just pull the lever for someone they don’t know just because they happen to be in their party.

He also expanded on what you can expect in local races.

“I think West Baton Rouge is one of the bigger ones, as you mentioned because there’s going to be a new parish president there one way or the other,” said Political Consultant Clay Young. “And this one’s a one-off. It’ll happen Saturday because there are only two candidates in the race. And then here, it’s interesting to see how the parish supports our longtime Sheriff Sid Gautreaux [who] has been in office for a very long time. He’s one of the more popular elected officials not just in Louisiana, but across in East Baton Rouge, across the Capitol Region.”

There are also four amendments that are totally different from one another.

The first two were driven by the pandemic. The first amendment deals with elections and whether non-government agencies or organizations can fund elections for the state or for municipalities.

Political Consultant Clay Young predicts that Louisiana folks will support it because of all the chatter about other sources playing in elections in other places.

Amendment number two addresses protections for worshiping inside churches. A vote for this one would give the highest level of constitutional protection for the freedom to worship inside a church and require courts to apply these when the government tries to restrict access.

A vote against would keep the level of protection for churches where they currently are.

Young also predicts this one to be successful.

All around he says turnout is going to be so important.

You can learn about the other amendments here.

“Southern has homecoming this weekend,” said Young. “LSU plays Auburn in a late game, I do think there’s an opportunity for people to turn out. I’m just interested, Louisiana has about 2.9 million registered voters. We are among the highest percentage of registered voters based upon state population. But our turnout often leaves something to be desired. So we’ll see if people have the itch to go and vote on Saturday.”

You can start voting at 7 a.m. Oct. 14. Polls close at 8 p.m. Election results can be found on wafb.com and our mobile app and will be streamed live on WAFB. The Secretary of State’s website also provides election results.

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