Early voting up 6 percent compared to Oct. election

Turnout for early voting rose sharply in Evangeline Parish.
According to Evangeline Parish Registrar of Voters Lucas Buller, 1,950 votes were cast in person during the early voting period for this Saturday’s run-off election. That is an increase of six percent compared to the 1,832 votes cast during the October 24th general election.
That increase is even more impressive when considering that this most recent early period had one less day of voting, due to the national holiday of Veteran’s Day.
Not even severe storms could deter voters from casting their ballots as the first day of early period, November 7, resulted in 383 votes being cast. That was 159 more than the first day of the early voting back in October, when the weather was nice.
“I am surprised by the turnout,” Buller said. “People typically don’t come out for runoffs but that is not the case this time around. They are energized.”
What could be driving parish residents to cast their ballots early?
In addition to state races for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and three propositions for parish voters there is the heated race between Daniel Arvie and Shawn D. Gallow for District 9 seat on the Police Jury.
That race had the largest turnout of the five Police Jury races for the October 24 election, as a total of 1,158 votes were cast. Arvie received 551 votes while Gallow received 341 votes to force a runoff.
Gerald Alfred placed third as he received 266 votes, which are now being coveted by both Arvie and Gallow for the runoff.
Alfred and Gallow are running for the seat held by longtime juror Richard “Blood” Thomas who opted not to run for another term.