Preparing for this election was an enormous task for Secretary of State Al Ater. While budgeting $4 million for the election, which is 10 times the usual cost, he probably spent $6 million to higher and accommodate Orleans parish office clerks and clerks of court from other Louisiana parishes. In addition, he sent more than 300 extra workers to staff precincts and assist incoming voters.
To accommodate displaced voters, Ater compress 256 polls into 76 polling places. This was essential because the previous polling sites were not operational in time for the Mayoral primary election. As a result, election officials created "mega-sites" at Jesuit High School, St. Dominic's School, the University of New Orleans and the state's voting machine warehouse in eastern New Orleans, each of which held 33 to 50 precincts. On Election Day, these sites fostered a reunion type atmosphere. At major intersections, hundreds of campaign workers, sometimes 50 or more at a single place, waved candidates' signs and shouted for the attention of motorist. Some major intersections resembled a parade or state fair.
Voters determined to cast a vote traveled from as far as Atlanta. I participated in welcoming four buses to New Orleans from Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. The buses arrived before dawn at Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church in Central City. Volunteer paramedics, counselors and others met them as they came off the bus. We served breakfast and drove them to their new polling places to vote.
Later that day, we assisted the Secretary of State as an official election observers. While the day went smoothly for the most part, the polls at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in Gentilly lost power at 5 p.m., Ater said. The outage lasted about 35 minutes. There were some reports of residents calling the Louisiana Voting Rights Network to complain that commissioners improperly told them they could not vote without photo ID. We are looking into those claims. Over all, most voters knew their rights and successfully voted. I observed an elderly woman struggle step by step to cast her vote. It was obvious she suffers from back and other muscle pain but her will to vote was greater.
For others however, there were some hurdles too high to climb. The out-of-town vote proved to be more affected by the distance than some analysts initially believed it would be. Yes, thousands of residents drove long distances to the polls but the armadas of buses from Houston, Atlanta and other hubs never materialized in great numbers. Our coalition noticed diminishing participation levels of the diaspora at pre-election forums held in those hubs and others. It was almost impossible to communicate to these voters without a list of who and where they were. Though many candidates traveled to out-of-town debates, few voters attended and without a voter list, candidates didn't pour money into out-of-state media buys at the rates some had expected. In the end, turnout appeared to be high in precincts that remained dry after Katrina, and lower in those that didn't.
Looking towards the general election on May 20th. The goal should be to help all displaced voters cast a ballot. Only 4% of the black registered voters made it to the eleven polls set up around the state for early vote. Louisiana Secretary of State Al Ater's estimated that 70% of the 10,585 people who cast ballots early were black, which translates into 7,409 black votes. Keep in mind this was 7,409 voters of a total of 188,166 eligible black registered voters. Ater says that a total of about 20,000 voted by mail or early voting centers. The latest estimates show that as many as 200,000 of the city's 290,000 registered voters may be living outside New Orleans.
The numbers tell the true story. In this election 108,000 votes were cast and 56,160 or 52% were Black. Compared to the 2002 Mayoral election when 135,000 votes were cast and 83,700 or 62% were Black, we see a major difference. The current population of New Orleans is around 150,000 and that it is evenly divided racially, that means there are 240,000 blacks and 50,000 whites still displaced. This is important to note because the next Mayor will play a major role in deciding: What neighborhoods will receive city services? What strategies the city will employ to rebound from the current recession? Which abandon homes be demolished?
To make this election more fair. We should 1) provide displaced voters with some form of out of state satellite voting, and 2) make the displaced voter list available to both candidates.
