Presidential primary will be March 23; check your registration

With national politics running hot and heavy, Louisiana voters will have to wait a month before they can take part in the presidential nomination process.
Primary election day will be Saturday, March 23. Early voting runs March 9-16, except, as usual, the Sunday during that early voting week.
St. Mary Registrar of Voters Terri Foulcard offered a caution: Presidential Preference Primary voting is limited to registered members of the Republican and Democratic parties.
As of Feb. 1, according to the Secretary of State’s Office, St. Mary’s 31,653 registered voters included 11,792 registered Democrats and 10,488 registered Republicans. That’s in a parish that gave Republican Donald J. Trump 58% majorities in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.
The parish has 9,373 voters registered as members of other parties or no party, and are ineligible to participate in the major party presidential primary.
Foulcard urged voters to check their registration information for party affiliation. The deadline for changes and new registrations is Feb. 21 at the Registrar of Voters Office, or March 2 for online changes or new registrations via geauxvote.com
The offices in St. Mary are at the Parish Courthouse in Franklin and at 301 Third St., Morgan City.
In the Democratic primary, 54 delegates are at stake, awarded proportionately based on the election results. Forty-seven delegates are at stake in the Louisiana GOP’s winner-take-all system.
It remains to be seen whether there will be a real primary race by the time Louisiana votes.
No prominent challengers have emerged to run against incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden.
Louisiana Republicans will see nine candidates on the primary ballot. But the biggest names among challengers to Trump have largely dropped out: Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida; former governors Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas and Chris Christie of New Jersey; and Vivek Ramaswamy.
That leaves former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley as the last widely known challenger to Trump. After losing to the former president in Iowa and New Hampshire, Haley is pinning her hopes on her home state’s Republican primary Feb. 24 and Michigan Feb. 27.
March 5, nearly three weeks before Louisiana’s primaries, is Super Tuesday, when 15 states, including California and Texas, hold primaries and apportion about a third of the delegates in either party process.
Though a Biden-Trump rematch seems inevitable, huge uncertainties cloud the picture: Biden’s low approval ratings, a series of crises in the Middle East, and criminal and civil charges against Trump.
Still, it’s not clear there will be a meaningful nomination race by the time Louisiana Democrats and Republicans cast primary ballots.
Presidential candidates will not appear alone on the March 23 ballot. Both major parties will elect members for their parish executive committees and state central committees.
Here are the results of qualifying for party offices:
Democratic State
Central Committee
District 50 A
Alfreida Edwards, Franklin
District 50 B
Ajani Connor
Woodrow J. Parker
District 51 B
Howard Castay
Ralphon Triggs
Democratic Parish
Executive
Committee
At Large
(5 to be elected)
Benjamin Anderson
Alfreida Edwards
Jonathan B. Jones
Sam Jones
Oray Rogers
District 1
Lue Pearl Washington
District 2
Ella P. Hamilton
District 3
Donald E. Hahn Sr.
District 6
Lenny J. Dartez
District 8
Ann W. Poole
At-Large District 9
Gary M. Wiltz
At-Large District 10
Shelia Ann Jones
At-Large District 11
Howard Castay
Woodrow J. Parker.
Republican State
Central Committee
District 21 A
Matthew Gulotta
Chet Howard
District 21 B
Christian Gil
District 21 E
Ira “Joseph” Bourg
Stephen Swiber
Republican Parish
Executive
Committee
At-Large
(5 to be elected)
Christian Gil
Elise Gil
Rodney Gil
District 2
Chet Howard