59°
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
7 Day Forecast
Follow our weather team on social media

EBR officials say mail-in voting for fall election more than tripled compared to 2016

3 years 5 months 1 week ago Thursday, October 15 2020 Oct 15, 2020 October 15, 2020 6:36 PM October 15, 2020 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - With early voting starting this week, parish officials say East Baton Rouge has already mailed out three times as many mail-in ballots as it did during the last presidential election.

The polls are now being prepped, and starting this Friday people will be able to vote early. East Baton Rouge Parish officials say they're giving residents more voting options this time around.

"There's a different absentee ballot request form available for people with COVID concerns. If they're high-risk, a caretaker or if they've been diagnosed, there's several different reasons that have been added for this election," East Baton Rouge Registrar of Voters Steve Raborn said.

Voters will have a jam-packed ballot on Nov. 3, with choices including the president, congress, constitutional amendments, and the Baton Rouge mayor's race.

Raborn encourages people to have a plan. You can download a sample ballot on the "Geaux Vote" app.

"The ballot is long, there will be a lot of people to vote for, and it really helps speed up the process if a voter is able to review a sample ballot before they come to vote," Raborn said.

You can vote early starting Friday, Oct. 16 through Oct. 27. Voters in East Baton Rouge can cast their ballot at any of the five early-voting centers. All locations will extend their evening hours from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m..

"In East Baton Rouge Parish, you have just under 300,000 registered voters, and that number is up by a few thousand over the past few months," Raborn said.

Voters are encouraged to bring their masks, but the parish will also offer one. As for the mail-in ballots, Raborn says more are starting to come in by the day.

"We've mailed out about 22,000 ballots for this election, which is really a record number. Very much higher than previous presidential elections. We mailed probably about 7,000 ballots in the 2016 presidential election."

Click here to find out where you can vote early: https://www.sos.la.gov/ElectionsAndVoting/Vote/VoteEarly/Pages/default.aspx

More News

Desktop News

Click to open Continuous News in a sidebar that updates in real-time.
Radar
7 Days