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BATON ROUGE — Secretary of State Tom Schedler has complained for years that Louisiana holds too many unnecessary elections, making it harder to draw interest from voters tired of repeatedly trekking to the polls. This fall’s statewide election cycle is emboldening his criticism and may help his push for change.

The October election drew a dismal 14 percent participation rate statewide from voters asked to select a new state treasurer and determine whether to tweak tax language in the Louisiana Constitution. That was the lowest turnout for a statewide election in at least 35 years.
Schedler, the state’s chief elections officer since 2010, anticipates voter turnout for the Nov. 18 statewide runoff for treasurer will fall even lower, to about 12 percent or 13 percent.

If the shockingly low turnout isn’t enough to make lawmakers consider Schedler’s drive to shrink the slate of electoral contests, there’s this tidbit: Louisiana, awash in financial problems, is spending $6 million to hold those elections in which few people are bothering to cast ballots.

“You think the rank-and-file voter out there really cares who the treasurer is, as evidenced by the turnout? It’s not motivating anybody to do anything,” Schedler said. “I think this election probably is making my case.”

The state wouldn’t have saved every dollar of that amount if the special election for treasurer hadn’t been held. Some municipalities still would have had their regularly scheduled local elections.

But local election costs are split with local governments, so the secretary of state’s office estimates it would have spent less than $1 million if the treasurer’s race hadn’t been on the ballot. (Schedler believes lawmakers wouldn’t have put the constitutional amendments before voters this fall if the special election wasn’t already set.)

“What would you do with that money? You could put it to TOPS (the free college tuition program). You could fix a bridge or road,” Schedler said.

The special statewide election will fill the remaining two years of the treasurer’s current term after Republican John Kennedy was elected to the U.S. Senate.

On Saturday, voters will choose between Democrat Derrick Edwards, a New Orleans area lawyer with an accounting degree, and Republican John Schroder, an ex-state lawmaker, former law enforcement official and businessman from Covington.

Louisiana has long had a tradition of calling special elections outside the scheduled March, April, October and November dates, with supporters saying elected jobs should not be left vacant for risk of depriving people of representation.

For the 60-month period from January 2005 through December 2010, Louisiana held 70 elections. Not all were statewide. Schedler called that number “absurd,” saying it was more than double the elections held by other Southern states.

He’s already has had some success lessening the number of elections held annually across Louisiana, first by drawing attention to his concerns and then by persuading lawmakers to toughen the rules for holding special elections, such as to fill vacant state legislative seats.

In the 60-month period from January 2011 through December 2015, Louisiana was down to 31 elections, instead of 70.

The special election for state treasurer may build traction to go further.

Melinda Deslatte has covered Louisiana politics for The Associated Press since 2000. Follow her at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte

The following are the radio dispatch logs from the Morgan City Police Department. To report unlawful or suspicious activity, call the police department at 985-380-4605.
Friday, Nov. 10
7:14 a.m. 600 block of Aucoin Street; Complaint.
7:46 a.m. 3000 block of Francis Street; Complaint.
8:29 a.m. Lafayette Street; Arrest.
8:41 a.m. 900 block of Marguerite Street; Civil matter.
10:22 a.m. 1000 block of Railroad Avenue; Complaint.
11:01 a.m. Marquis Manor; Found property.
11:18 a.m. 2300 block of Sixth Street; Alarm.
12:02 p.m. 7200 block of La. 182; Civil matter.
2:41 p.m. Maple Street; Disturbance.
3:38 p.m. Poplar Street; Complaint.
3:53 p.m. Front and Onstead streets; Disturbance.
4:13 p.m. 1400 block of Federal Avenue; Crash.
4:17 p.m. Acorn and Leona streets; Complaint.
4:47 p.m. 600 block of Leona Street; Medical.
6:08 p.m. 1500 block of Filmore Street; Officer stand by.
7:10 p.m. 800 block of Fourth Street; Suspicious vehicle.
7:21 p.m. La. 182 and Cottonwood Street; Vehicle accident.
8:26 p.m. U.S. 90 West; Stalled vehicle.
8:46 p.m. 1600 block of Front Street; Complaint.
8:57 p.m. 500 block of Freret Street; Suspicious vehicle.
10:07 p.m. Railroad Avenue and Union Street; Assistance.
10:22 p.m. La. 70/U.S. 90 Junction; Vehicle accident.
11:45 p.m. La. 182; Assistance.
Saturday, Nov. 11
1:10 a.m. 400 block of Bush Street; Assistance.
1:12 a.m. Second and Dugas streets; Patrol request.
1:29 a.m. 6300 block of La. 182; Disturbance.
1:49 a.m. 1200 block of Front Street; Loud music.
1:58 a.m. 7200 block of La. 182; Patrol request.
3:20 a.m. 2300 block of Maple Street; Alarm.
3:36 a.m. 1100 block of Marguerite Street; Complaint.
4:40 a.m. 600 block of Kentucky Street; Suspicious vehicle.
8:38 a.m. Railroad and Ditch avenues; Animal complaint.
8:56 a.m. 600 block of Everett Street; Alarm.
9:57 a.m. 7500 block of La. 182; Civil matter.
10:57 a.m. 7700 block of La. 182; Theft.
2:23 p.m. La. 182 and Myrtle Street; Complaint.
3:21 p.m. 1700 block of Dale Street; Animal complaint.
3:26 p.m. 6400 block of La. 182; Theft.
3:30 p.m. 900 block of Marguerite Street; Complaint.
4:03 p.m. 1100 block of Marguerite Street; Disturbance.
5:29 p.m. 7200 block of La. 182; Complaint.
6 p.m. 700 block of Everett Street; Theft.
6:07 p.m. Wren Street; Complaint.
6:38 p.m. Egle Street; Loud music.
6:42 p.m. 700 block of Myrtle Street; Complaint.
7:15 p.m. Terrebonne Street; Juvenile problems.
7:32 p.m. 3200 block of Lake Palourde Road; Alarm.
7:46 p.m. 500 block of Brashear Avenue; Suspicious person(s).
8:07 p.m. 7400 block of La. 182 East; Loud music.
8:14 p.m. 700 block of Everett Street; Alarm.
9:12 p.m. 800 block of General Patton Street; Medical emergency.
Sunday, Nov. 12
1:56 a.m. 2300 block of La. 70; Suspicious person.
2:13 a.m. 600 block of Terrebonne Street; Assistance.
5:14 a.m. 700 block of Onstead Street; Medical emergency.
9:50 a.m. 500 block of Federal Avenue; Alarm.
10:08 a.m. 700 block of Myrtle Street; Disturbance.
10:14 a.m. 7500 block of La. 182; Disturbance.
11:17 a.m. Fourth Street; Complaint.
11:44 a.m. 200 block of Mallard Street; Intoxicated subject.
12:53 p.m. 500 block of Aucoin Street; Complaint.
1:16 p.m. 1900 block of Elm Street; Complaint.
2:41 p.m. 1200 block of Victor II Boulevard; Crash.
2:48 p.m. 200 block of Second Street; Disturbance.
3:09 p.m. First Street and Brashear Avenue; Complaint.
4:11 p.m. 100 block of Eleventh Street; Assistance.
4:26 p.m. 3000 block of Lake Palourde; Assistance.
5:26 p.m. Fifth and Freret streets; Theft.
8:06 p.m. 600 block of General Patton Street; Loud music.
8:28 p.m. 600 block of Florida Street; Complaint.
8:36 p.m. 1500 block of Sandra Street; Disturbance.
9:32 p.m. 700 block of Myrtle Street; Theft.
10:44 p.m. La. 182 East; Complaint.
10:54 p.m. 800 block of Brashear Avenue; Alarm.
11:27 p.m. David Drive; Suspicious person.
Monday, Nov. 13
1:53 a.m. 1100 block of Brashear Avenue; Suspicious person.
2:12 a.m. 7200 block of La. 182 East; Suspicious person.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Disguised Russian agents on Twitter rushed to deflect scandalous news about Donald Trump just before last year’s presidential election while straining to refocus criticism on the mainstream media and Hillary Clinton’s campaign, according to an Associated Press analysis of since-deleted accounts.

Tweets by Russia-backed accounts such as “America_1st_” and “BatonRougeVoice” on Oct. 7, 2016, actively pivoted away from news of an audio recording in which Trump made crude comments about groping women, and instead touted damaging emails hacked from Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta.

Since early this year, the extent of Russian intrusion to help Trump and hurt Clinton in the election has been the subject of both congressional scrutiny and a criminal investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. In particular, those investigations are looking into the possibility of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.
AP’s analysis illuminates the obvious strategy behind the Russian cyber meddling: swiftly react, distort and distract attention from any negative Trump news.

The AP examined 36,210 tweets from Aug. 31, 2015, to Nov. 10, 2016, posted by 382 of the Russian accounts that Twitter shared with congressional investigators last week. Twitter deactivated the accounts, deleting the tweets and making them inaccessible on the internet. But a limited selection of the accounts’ Twitter activity was retrieved by matching account handles against an archive obtained by AP.

“MSM (the mainstream media) is at it again with Billy Bush recording ... What about telling Americans how Hillary defended a rapist and later laughed at his victim?” tweeted the America_1st— account, which had 25,045 followers at its peak, according to metadata in the archive. The tweet went out the afternoon of Oct. 7, just hours after The Washington Post broke the story about Trump’s comments to Bush, then host of “Access Hollywood,” about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women, saying, “when you’re a star, they let you do it.”

Within an hour of the Post’s story, WikiLeaks unleashed its own bombshell about hacked email from Podesta’s account, a release the Russian accounts had been foreshadowing for days.

Twitter handed over the handles of 2,752 accounts it identified as coming from Russia’s Internet Research Agency to congressional investigators ahead of the social media giant’s Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 appearances on Capitol Hill. It said 9 percent of the tweets were election-related but didn’t make the tweets themselves public.

That makes the archive the AP obtained the most comprehensive historical picture so far of Russian activity on Twitter in the crucial run-up to the Nov. 8, 2016, vote. Twitter policy requires developers who archive its material to delete tweets from suspended accounts as soon as reasonably possible, unless doing so would violate the law or
Twitter grants an exception. It’s possible the existence of the deleted tweets in the archive obtained by the AP runs afoul of those rules.

The Russian accounts didn’t just spring into action at the last minute. They were similarly active at earlier points in the campaign.

When Trump reversed himself on a lie about Barack Obama’s birthplace on Sept. 17, declaring abruptly that Obama “was born in the United States, period,” several
Russian accounts chimed in to echo Trump’s subsequent false claim that it was Clinton who had started the birther controversy.

Others continued to push birther narratives. The Russian account TEN_GOP, which many mistook for the official account of the Tennessee Republican Party, linked to a video that claimed that Obama “admits he was born in Kenya.” But the Russian accounts weren’t in lockstep. The handle “hyddrox” retweeted a post by the anti-Trump billionaire Mark Cuban that the “MSM (mainstream media) is being suckered into chasing birther stories.”

On Sept. 15, Clinton returned to the campaign trail following a bout with pneumonia that caused her to stumble at a 9/11 memorial service. The Russian account
“Pamela_Moore13” noted that her intro music was “I Feel Good” by James Brown — then observed that “James Brown died of pneumonia,” a line that was repeated at least 11 times by Russian accounts, including by “Jenn_Abrams,” which had 59,868 followers at the time.

According to several obituaries, Brown died of congestive heart failure related to pneumonia.

Racial discord also figured prominently in the tweets, just as it did with many of the ads Russian trolls had purchased on Facebook in the months leading up to and following the election. One Russian account, “Blacks4DTrump,” tweeted a Trump quote on Sept. 16 in which he declared “it is the Democratic party that is the party of slavery, the party of Jim Crow & the party of opposition.”

TEN_GOP, meanwhile, asked followers to “SPREAD the msg of black pastor explaining why African-Americans should vote Donald Trump!”