JEFFERSON PARISH, La. ( WGNO ) — Across the country, early voter participation has started strong.
Here in Louisiana, over 170,000 Louisiana voters cast ballots Friday for the Nov. 5 election, according to the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office .
A ‘Second line to the polls’ event kicked off early voting
“Having more people turn out and that’s a good sign,” said Dennis DiMarco with the Jefferson Parish Registrar of Voters.
The first few days of early voting have wrapped up. DiMarco says he couldn’t put into words the happiness he felt as 8,074 voters in Jefferson Parish cast early ballots on the first day alone.
He explains the presidential primary shattered the former first-day early voting record of 3,891 votes in 2020.
Jefferson Parish voters also outpaced other large parishes like New Orleans with 7,787 voters on the first day of early voting, East Baton Rouge which tallied 7,528 voters and St. Tammany which managed 7,796 voters.
“We always track prior years. And if we look at the last two presidential elections, two, 16, 2016 and 2020, the first day of early voting and 2024, we have surpassed the total for those two first days, 2016 and 2020,” said DiMarco.