Other party-no party register gains in voter rolls

BATON ROUGE (AP) — Louisiana’s voter rolls jumped by nearly 36,000 in the last two months of the registration period leading up to the Nov. 4 election, with more than half of the new voters opting for neither Democrat nor Republican designation, according to registration statistics released Wednesday.
State election data also shows there were twice as many black registrants as white and other races combined during the period and many of them are signing up other party or no party.
Secretary of State Tom Schedler said more analysis needs to be done to determine what’s behind the increase in independents — whether it’s strictly new voters or Democrats and Republicans who switched registration because of frustration over party politics.
“We have seen an inordinate amount of independents. They have been on the increase over Democrat and Republican registration for some time but not to this degree,” said Secretary of State Tom Schedler. “That’s something that jumps off the page to me.”
“It kind of changes the dynamics of it,” said Schedler, referring to the election.
Schedler said more analysis needs to be done to determine what’s behind the increase in independents — whether it’s strictly new voters or Democrats and Republicans who switched registration because of frustration over party politics.
Schedler’s office Wednesday certified 2.93 million voters eligible to participate in the Nov. 4 election in which a U.S. Senate seat and 14 constitutional amendments are on the statewide ballot.
The breakdown by political party: 46.7 percent Democrat, 27.6 percent Republican and 25.5 percent other party or no party designation. The breakdown by race: 64 percent white, 31 percent black and 5 percent Hispanic, Asian or other race.