Louisiana governor's race saw near record early voting turnout; here's what it means

Greg Hilburn | The News Star

Show Caption Hide Caption WATCH: Artist Tony Bernard talks about his 'I Voted' creation Lafayette artist Tony Bernard used his signature "King George" pelican as the inspiration for the 2019 "I voted" sticker.

Louisiana loves voting early with voters coming close to setting an all-time record last week for the Nov. 16 governor's election.

In all, 489,654 cast early ballots for the Nov. 16 runoff between Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards and Republican Baton Rouge businessman Eddie Rispone in a race generally considered a tossup.

That's 100,000 plus more ballots than were cast early for the Oct. 12 primary that whittled the field to Edwards and Rispone.

"This is a sea change between what existed previously," said Pearson Cross, a University of Louisiana at Lafayette political science professor. "I think it's a good thing that spurs turnout.

"It gives people more options, a longer time to consider who they want to support with their vote and the opportunity to plan when it's most convenient for them to vote."

Even President Donald Trump was surprised by the state's early voting phenomenon, which he mentioned while on stage in Monroe last week in a rally supporting Rispone.

"I'm here for early voting," Trump said. "I said, 'Well, not a lot of people do that.' They said in Louisiana 40% of the vote is early voting. I said, 'I'll come.'"

Early voting isn't likely to hit 40% of the total for the Nov. 16 election, but it could account for a third or more of total votes cast.

Trump will headline another rally at 7 p.m. Thursday at the CenturyLink Center in Bossier City.

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The numbers for early voting last week were only surpassed by the 2016 presidential election.

They were up 30 percent compared to the Oct. 12 primary election.

Analysts like political consultant and pollster John Couvillon said the demographics of last week's early voting were favorable to Edwards.

Couvillon said early voting turnout for black voters, who he said are "almost unanimously Democratic," increased from 25% in the primary to 31% in the runoff.

"Early voting was unequivocally a good day for Governor Edwards' campaign," Couvillon tweeted Sunday.

But Republicans expect a Trump bump from Thursday's rally to energize their voters to go to the polls on Election Day Saturday.

Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.

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