Early voting tops 1,800 in St. Mary

Slightly more than 6% of St. Mary Parish’s registered voters cast early ballots during the run-up to a turbulent Saturday primary.
The St. Mary Registrar of Voters Office reported that 1,459 people voted in person during the May 2-9 early voting period. Another 438 absentee ballots have been received for a total of 1,897 early voters.
That’s about 6.2% of the St. Mary registered voter total of 30,400 reported by the Secretary of State’s Office as of May 1.
The May 16 primary was already going to be a voter education challenge because top-level offices, including U.S. representative, now have closed party primaries rather than the usual Louisiana jungle primaries.
Then came the U.S. Supreme Court’s Callais decision, which ruled that Louisiana’s second Black-majority congressional district was drawn based on race to an unconstitutional degree.
Gov. Jeff Landry suspended voting for U.S. representative. As of Monday, no new maps have been adopted and no new election date has been set.
Meanwhile, voting for other offices continued. On Saturday, polls will be open 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Bring a photo ID to the polls.
On the ballot:
•The U.S. Senate primaries, which are unaffected by the Callais decision.
On the Republican side, incumbent Bill Cassidy is being challenged by Julia Letlow, who represents Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District; state Treasurer John Fleming; and Mark Spencer of Belle Chasse.
The Democratic Senate primary qualifiers are Nicholas “Nick” Albares and Gary Crockett, both of New Orleans, and “Jamie” Davis of Ferriday.
•In Franklin, Mayor Eugene Foulcard and most of the City Council have already been re-elected because they qualified without opposition.
The only remaining race is between incumbent Pearl Barnes Rack and Ella P. Hamilton in District C.
The May 16 ballot also includes five proposed amendments to the state constitution:
•Amendment 1 would allow the Legislature to add or remove positions to the unclassified state civil service.
•Amendment 2 would grant the St. George community school system the same status as other school boards if the breakaway East Baton Rouge city decides to form its own school system.
•Amendment 3 would dissolve three state trust funds and use the money to pay down Teachers Retirement System debt while giving certified teachers a permanent $2,250 raise and other staff members a $1,125 raise.
•Amendment 4 would allow local governments to reduce or eliminate the property tax on business inventories.
•Amendment 5 would raise the mandatory retirement age for judges to 75 from 70.