Voter registration underway for state presidential primary

Lincoln Parish residents who want to register to vote in the March 23 presidential primary, or want to make changes to their current registration, have until Feb. 21 to do so either in person at the registrar of voters office, by mail, or at the Office of Motor Vehicles.

Only registered Republicans and Democrats can vote in the closed preference primary, with no crossover voting allowed. That means Republicans vote for Republican candidates, and Democrats for Democrat candidates.

Also on the ballot are several races for both Democrat and Republican parish executive committee seats and seats on each party’s state central committee.

The presidential primary and the party races are Louisiana’s only closed elections.

Voters can check their current party registration by visiting the Louisiana Secretary of State’s website, sos. la.gov, downloading the GeauxVote mobile app, or contacting the Lincoln Parish Registrar of Voters office at 251-5110.

Louisiana will be back on its traditional springtime primary track this year after postponing the 2020 primary twice because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2020 primary was originally scheduled for April and was finally held in July, long after the presumptive Democrat and Republican presidential nominees had been decided.

Early voting for the 2020 primary drew 1,888 people, 802 of whom voted in person, according to the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office.

For this year’s primary, 1,291 voters have asked for mail ballots so far, Registrar of Voters Sharon Parnell said Thursday.

Deadline to request a mail ballot is March 19.

Of Lincoln Parish’s 26,912 registered voters, 9,570 are Democrats; 10,090, Republicans, and 7,252 are registered with other parties or no party.