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WASHINGTON PARISH, La. – Early voting has ended in Louisiana and numbers are down in Washington Parish compared to the last two October elections, in 2015 and 2019. Of the mentioned elections, this is the first to see an overall decrease. The only statistical groups to see increases in the counts provided by the Secretary of State’s office were Republicans and Absentee voters. 

Democrats that early voted in the parish saw an overall decrease of 649 voters while Republicans rose by 221. This is the opposite of the statewide turnout, as all parties in the state lacked the voters seen four years ago. Those registered under other parties, such as Independent, Green, Libertarian, and no party did increase, though only slightly with 19 more early voters than in 2019. 

When looking at in-person versus absentee voting, those sending in absentee ballots increased by 230 with those voting directly at the polls falling by 596. This is similar to the statewide numbers, which saw 25,005 more absentee votes than in 2019. Overall, across Louisiana, 41, 590 fewer registered voters participated in early voting than the last October election, 366 of those coming from Washington Parish.