By Mike Hasten

mhasten@lafayette.gannett.com

and John Prime

jprime@gannett.com

and Monica Carter

mpcarter@gannett.com

BATON ROUGE - A higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats are voting absentee for the Nov. 15 election, when Kathleen Blanco and Bobby Jindal face off in Louisiana's gubernatorial runoff. And some parishes have more people voting absentee this time than they had for the Oct. 4 primary, registrars of voters report.

But that doesn't mean more people will go to the polls next week, some registrars of voters say. And Secretary of State Fox McKeithen, who predicted a much higher turnout than the actual count Oct. 4, sidestepped an exact forecast for the Nov. 15 election and settled for "less than the 49.5 percent in October."

Interest in the gubnernatorial runoff and local elections varies widely in different parts of the state. Some registrars of voters report increases in absentee voting for this election; others say it's much quieter than October.

As of Thursday evening, 69,363 people had voted absentee statewide. In October, 85,602 voted absentee. Assistant Elections Commissioner Pat Bergeron doesn't believe the October count will be topped by noon today, when absentee balloting ends.

"We've already exceeded the October turnout," said Caddo Registrar of Voters Ernie Roberson, who ended Friday with 2,166 votes cast. Midway through the lunch hour, he had more than 20 people standing in a line in the lobby to his offices in downtown Shreveport.

Roberson expected well more than 400 people to cast absentee votes that day, with as many likely to vote today before absentee voting ends at noon.

There were 2,118 absentee votes cast in Caddo for the Oct. 4 election. The all-time record, reached during the Duke-Edwards gubernatorial match-up, is 3,823.

Roberson expects as many as 2,700 absentee votes to be cast this week but said that might not translate to greater overall turnout Nov. 15. "I really think since we're in the middle of deer, duck and pigskin season, that's more of what it is."

As of the close of business Thursday, 1,858 of Caddo's 150,449 registered voters had come to Roberson's office. They include 1,537 white, 300 black and 21 other-race voters; 852 Democrats, 858 Republicans and 148 no-party. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 2-to-1.

Pastor Kenneth Fisher broke away from work twice Friday to try to squeeze in a visit to the Caddo registrar of voters' office. The first time, the line was so long the 62-year-old had to leave to keep an appointment with someone at his church, St. Paul United Methodist. The second, he waited an hour before getting to cast his vote.

"I didn't anticipate this kind of crowd on a workday. Someone told me it would just take a few minutes."

Somebody must have told a whole lot of people the same thing. Men and women - some in suits, others in sneakers and jeans - stood for more than an hour to cast absentee ballots Friday afternoon in Caddo. The line snaked around the lobby, with people squeezing in to make room for latecomers.

Some of those waiting chatted on cellular telephones; others struck up conversations with strangers. Fisher joined a discussion about the increased presence of snakes this time of year- the best way to kill them is a shotgun, the group decided. Or a hoe.



Accepting that he was going to be in line for a while, Fisher searched for a cell phone to tell his wife he may be unavailable to pick up their grandchildren. "I am not getting out of this line again."

In Bossier Parish, Registrar Janet Burks reported 1,073 walk-in absentee votes cast as of midday Friday. "It's been steady the whole week. If it continues the way it has, we'll exceed the in-person absentee voting in October, which was 1,164," Burks said. "It's helped that we have a short ballot. We get them in and out fast and that's helped a lot."

Lafayette Registrar of Voters Steve Bernard describes absentee voting in his parish as heavy with about 900 absentee ballots cast each day, a total of 3,637 the first four days. That's as many as he had for the entire six days of absentee voting for the Oct. 4 primary.

"It would look like a heavier absentee turnout would tell you it would be a heavier turnout for the runoff, but that's not necessarily the case," Bernard said. "This is a race that's hard to predict. We don't hear much talk about it like we used to hear for other elections.

"Most of the people in line (to vote absentee) were talking about preparing for a big hunting adventure or the LSU game," he said. "Some work offshore, seven and seven, and they wanted to vote before they go out."

Almost half of the 3,637 absentee votes cast so far in Lafayette are by Republicans, 1,715 to 1,526 by Democrats - although Democrats outnumber Republicans 57,778 to 37,627 in the parish.

Lafayette is Democrat Blanco's home parish; Republican Jindal carried it in the primary.

Another 396 Lafayette absentee votes were cast by those among the 27,716 voters who list other or no party affiliation. Whites cast 3,364 absentee votes, blacks 206 and other-race 67. Of those, 2,010 are men and 1,627 are women.

Bernard said 51 percent of Lafayette voters turned out for the primary, but he's predicting 43 percent for Nov. 15.

"We're predicting a turnout of 27 percent, about half of the 53 percent we had in October," St. Landry Registrar of Voters John Alcee Moreau said Friday. "St. Landry has only the two statewide races and five council seats. Interest in those races is not as high as it was for the primary, when there was a lot more on the ballot."

St. Landry has 54,294 registered voters. As of midafternoon Friday, 1,596 - 3 percent of the total - had voted absentee. Of those, 1,203 are white, 379 black and 14 other race; 1,098 are Democrats, 382 Republicans and 116 other party; 821 are men and 775 are women.

In Rapides, Registrar of Voters Joanelle Wilson reported 2,321 absentee voters as of the close of business Friday, roughly 3 percent of the parish's 77,588 registered voters. They include 1,997 white, 292 black and 32 other-race voters; 1,224 Democrats, 873 Republicans and 220 other-party voters.

"I hate to make a prediction" of voter turnout "because the voter rolls are inflated about 10 percent" by the National Registration Act provision that voters can't be removed until they've missed two federal election cycles, Wilson said. However, she and Clerk of Court Carolyn Ryland predict a 55 percent turnout.

Ouachita Parish Registrar Christa Medaries said 2,193 people voted absentee last month. "So far, we're at 2,191 and they're still coming," she said Friday afternoon.

Medaries said she couldn't predict turnout in the parish but believes there's more interest in the gubernatorial race now that it's come down to two candidates.

Of the 1,995 Ouachita residents who had voted absentee as of Thursday, 1,005 are Republicans, 920 are Democrats and 200 are other party. Democrats outnumber Republicans 44,733 to 27,673. White absentee voters outnumber blacks 1,848 to 255; 22 are other race. Men absentee voters barely outnumber women 1,094 to 1,031.