Louisiana: civil rights groups pushing absentee voting plan
The Shreveport Times reports: Hurricane evacuees who ended up in parishes or states outside their home districts should be allowed to vote by mail or in person wherever they are, representatives of citizen rights groups from across the state said Tuesday.
Under the umbrella organization Louisiana Industrial Areas Foundation Network, the groups support several bills to be debated by the Legislature. The bills seek to allow evacuees to vote by mail or in person at any registrar's office in elections that affect their homes. Several bills seek to suspend a state law requiring first-time voters to cast ballots in person.
"The 25,000 evacuees in Avoyelles Parish won't have a say in what's going on" if the Legislature doesn't establish a way for them to vote, said Jacqueline Marchand, a resident of a Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer village in Bunkie. ...
The coalition consists of the Jeremiah Group from Orleans and Jefferson parishes, the Northern and Central Louisiana Interfaith with members in Ouachita, West Carroll, Bossier, Caddo, Rapides and Avoyelles parishes. -- The Shreveport Times