Jeremy Alford and David Jacobs: The Other Landry burns candle at both ends

With no small amount of attention or controversy, her office is endeavoring to buy new voting machines. She’s also traveling the state and spreading the word about Louisiana’s new party primary system, while preparing for another round of elections next month.
Late last week, meanwhile, she transitioned to 24/7 watch as the Legislature convened a special session to alter her office’s 2026 election calendar.
To put it mildly, Secretary of State Nancy Landry has one of the hottest elected seats in the state right now — and political temperatures are only increasing.
Pushing the thermostat further, Landry is engaged in a high-stakes disagreement with Attorney General Liz Murrill, who cancelled the secretary of state’s legal counsel over a dispute about Louisiana’s redistricting case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
As the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether the state’s congressional map and its two majority Black districts should stand, Murrill argued she was the state’s chief legal officer and Landry didn’t need a voice in the proceedings.
Landry, however, will have a voice in the special session that convenes this afternoon as lawmakers debate delaying next year’s elections for a month as they await a court decision on the need for a new congressional map.
“We’ve just been providing them with the possibilities, because you can’t just move an election to any date,” Landry said. “Elections have a domino effect, and when you move one thing, it affects everything else.” 
About these elections
What matters most to Landry is not when the ruling comes, but when her office receives a new map from the Legislature. 
She also has to consider all of the behind-the-scenes mechanics the average legislator overlook. For example, under federal law, ballots have to be mailed to military and overseas voters 45 days before the election.
Next year’s federal elections already carried the uncertainty of how voters will respond to the return of party primaries in Louisiana, which sowed confusion and frustration when they were last used here in 2008 and 2010.
As such, Landry’s office launched a “robust voter education campaign” to help citizens navigate the new system. That effort started with sending mail explaining the basics of party primaries to every voter household in the state, though those mailers included dates that won’t be valid much longer. 
“We want [voters] to know in advance what their options will be,” Landry said.
About those new machines
Landry’s office is working through the options for replacing Louisiana’s decades-old voting machines. Efforts by the last two men to hold her position – Tom Schedler and Kyle Ardoin – fell apart amid controversy about the contracting and selection process. 
Conspiracy theories regarding the 2020 election have fueled controversy about the process. In an August social media post, President Donald Trump said he was going to “lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS,” along with “Very Expensive and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES, which cost Ten Times more than accurate and sophisticated Watermark Paper.”
“There are a group of people who don’t want us to have any equipment at all,” Landry said. 
There was plenty of electoral cheating back in the day when there were no voting machines, she noted, so it’s not as if paper ballots are fraud-proof.
What Landry and legislators say they are looking for is the best of both worlds: efficient, accurate modern technology that allows officials to announce results on election night, as voters have come to expect, while also producing an auditable paper trail. 
“That machine tally can be used to verify that the paper ballots have not been manipulated,” Landry said. “The paper ballots can be used to verify that the machine tally has not been manipulated.”
Six potential vendors, including Dominion, which was at the center of some of those 2020 election conspiracy theories, have publicly demonstrated their wares. The contract is likely to be worth in the neighborhood of $100 million. (Read more about the process in LaPolitics.)
When it comes to actually using the new machines, the idea is to start with a few parishes, then add more over time. The goal is to start the pilot rollout next year, “but with all of these changes in this special session, we can’t promise that,” Landry said.
About the AG battle
Landry recently found herself in a dispute with Attorney General Murrill over legal issues related to the Callais case, which involves the challenge to the state’s congressional map that made it to the Supreme Court and spurred the Legislature’s latest special session. The disagreement led Murrill to fire all of Landry’s outside attorneys, not just the ones working on Callais.
Or she “purported to fire them,” as Landry puts it. 
“I don’t think she has the authority to do that, but it’s still unresolved right now,” she said.
Moving elections is an enormous task, and she needs her attorneys to make sure all the legal issues are covered, Landry said. Now, she said, her in-house counsel have to get ready to take over cases that the outside attorneys were handling. 
“As the Chief Legal Officer of the State, supervising state and federal litigation - especially challenges to the constitutionality of our laws - is my job,” Murrill said by email.
“The Secretary of State has not requested assistance in any particular matter. My office has the resources to assist her should she need any help.”  
Early voting for the Nov. 15 ballot begins Nov. 1. Orleans Parish will hold runoffs for races that weren’t decided on Oct. 11. St. Landry Parish also has a runoff, while 32 parishes will have local propositions. 
About her politics
Asked what spurred her first run for public office, Landry said she had become frustrated by the lack of public school options for her son, who was in third grade. She lost her first race for the state House to incumbent Don Trahan by only 33 votes, then won the special election after Trahan stepped down less than a year later. 
She championed the cause of school choice on the House Education Committee, which she chaired in her final term. Ardoin tapped her to be his first assistant, and when he decided not to run for re-election, “I just knew I was the right person for the job,” she said. 
Would she ever want to run for a different office, like governor, or Congress? She said she’s learned to “never say never,” but has no big plans in that regard. 
“I love what I’m doing here, I’m happy doing it, and I look forward to continuing to do it,” she said. “So I’m just planning to run for re-election.”
For more Louisiana political news, visit www. LaPolitics.com or follow Alford on X @ LaPoliticsNow.