Early voting for Louisiana's 2024 presidential primary election is running well ahead of where it was during the 2016 race, even though Democrats and Republicans in other states have already determined who will be on the ballot this fall.

Data from the Louisiana Secretary of State's office show that 75,000 people cast ballots Saturday, when early voting opened for the March 23 presidential primary and a handful of down-ballot races. In 2016, when both the Democratic and Republican nominations were still undecided, just over 100,000 people cast ballots through the entire seven-day early voting period.     

This year, in 39 of the state's 64 parishes, the presidential primaries and contests for state committees of the various political parties are the only items on the ballot. Few of the remaining 25 parishes have major races.

Early voting this year was up significantly in Caddo Parish, which has a sheriff's race. The number of votes in Bossier and Rapides parishes this year also already exceed the number of votes in the same election in all of 2016. Bossier Parish has only state party races, while Rapides Parish has a local judgeship on the ballot.

The 2020 presidential primaries occurred during the pandemic and after the parties had settled on Joe Biden and Donald Trump as nominees.

It's too early to tell whether the increased turnout signals protests votes against either of the major party candidates, as has occurred in some other states.

Voter registration is up 4 percent since 2016.

Eight years ago, Democrats made up 58 percent of the state's 2.3 million registered voters, while 36 were registered with the GOP. This year, Democrats have a 48-43 edge, though the number of Democrats has fallen nearly 15 percent since 2016. GOP registration is up 22 percent across the same period.