Police jury election turnout on the decline
Saturday’s Lincoln Parish Police Jury elections saw the worst voter turnout in at least the past 12 years of jury races.
The percentage of registered voters who went to the polls across the seven districts that had a police jury contest on the ballot ranged from 16.3% in District 9 to 40.5% in District 3.
That turnout rate in District 9 was the lowest in any race over the past four police jury elections going back to 2011, as far back as the Secretary of State’s website has turnout data available.
“Very disappointed in the turnout,” District 9 juror Joe Henderson said after winning reelection Saturday night by 75 votes.
But it wasn’t just District 9. District 11 (18.6%) and District 2 (18.8%) also posted lower turnouts than any district saw in the past dozen years.
In fact, six of the seven districts on the ballot Saturday had their lowest turnout of the past four election cycles. Even District 3, which led the way this year, was down considerably from both the 2019 primary and the 2020 special jury election in that district.
The voting decline wasn’t just for local items on the ballot.
Total turnout in Lincoln Parish for the Louisiana governor’s race was just 30.3% — also the lowest out of the past four governor’s races.
Other ballot items aren’t always the same from one election cycle to the next.
In 2019, parish voters had a three-way sheriff’s race with no incumbent, as well as assessor and clerk of court races on the ballot. That year parishwide turnout was 45.4%, and several police jury races had turnouts higher than 50%.
None of those other election positions were contested at the polls this time around.
In addition to the ballot items, some pointed to other events going on Saturday as a detractor from voting, particularly the Grambling State University homecoming game and festivities.
“A lot of them went to that game,” District 10 jury candidate Gary Baldwin said. “Hopefully we’ll have more people coming out next time.”
District 1, 10 and 11 are headed to runoffs on Nov. 18. Those candidates will be tasked with figuring out how to get more constituents to the polls.
“I hope we have more of a turnout than what we did this time,” District 10 juror Milton Melton said. “The turnout seemed to be low in some precincts. I’m going to encourage the constituents in those areas to turnout and vote. This is something vital to their district.”
District 10’ s turnout in Saturday’s primary was 21.8%. That compares unfavorably to the 34.6% turnout in that district in 2019, when Melton defeated incumbent Nancy Wilson.
