731 vote early in advance of Dec. 10 balloting

A shorter ballot has translated into a sharp fall-off in voter interest in the Dec. 10 general election as measured by early voting.

The St. Mary Registrar of Voters Office said 731 people cast early ballots during the early voting period, which opened Nov. 26 and ran through Saturday.

St. Mary ballots will be much shorter Saturday than in the Nov. 8 primary, when the issues included races for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, St. Mary School Board, Berwick and Baldwin municipal offices, the state Court of Appeal, and the Public Service Commission, plus eight state constitutional amendments and a Morgan City tax renewal.

The Nov. 8 election drew 3,945 early votes.

On Saturday, St. Mary voters will decide whether to open the Parish Council chair and vice chair posts to any of the council's 11 members. The parish charter currently limits those positions to members elected from the three at-large districts, representatives of which are each elected parishwide.

On the statewide ballot:

--Amendment 1 would change the state constitution to explicitly require U.S. citizenship of anyone voting or registering to vote in Louisiana. The current language requires U.S. citizenship.

--Amendment 2 would require state Senate confirmation of the governor's appointees to the State Civil Service Board.

--Amendment 3 would require state Senate confirmation of certain gubernatorial appointees to the State Police Commission.

In Baldwin, there will be two runoffs for town offices.

Ronnie Fuselier and Anthony "Gip" Gibson are vying to become police chief.

Carolyn Bowser and Marion J. Newton are in a runoff for a Board of Alderman seat.

The deadline to request an absentee ballot for the Dec. 10 election is 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The absentee ballot return deadline is 4:30 p.m. Friday.

Please visit www.geauxvote.com for more information