La Legislature considers bill to allow voting outside of La

[Anita Garcia]

Senate committee to hear satellite-voting bill today
Current law doesn't allow polls out of state
<http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1143617888106940.xml>
New Orleans residents driven from the state by last fall's hurricanes would have access in many cities to a polling place for their elections back home if a bill being heard in a Senate committee today becomes law.

. . . .
In January, the Federal Emergency Management Agency provided the secretary of state's office with a list of Louisiana residents who have applied for aid. The list contains 310,018 people living out of state at the end of 2005 and 234,688 people in-state. Many of those people served as the FEMA applicant for their family.

Another set of figures provided by the secretary of state showed that 234,527 people who lived in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina have applied for FEMA aid at addresses in other states. Nearly half that number were in Texas, and about 25,000 were in Georgia.

As long as those people are registered to vote in New Orleans and have not registered to vote in another state, then under current law they can come back to Louisiana to vote in person or can request an absentee voting ballot. But current Louisiana law does not allow satellite polling stations in other states.

. . . .
Louisiana Secretary of State Al Ater supports satellite voting in other states, although he thinks a fair election can be held without it.
. . . .
On Tuesday, NAACP President Bruce Gordon and the Rev. Jesse Jackson joined Ater for a media briefing in Baton Rouge to announce they had met and found much common ground in their concerns about reaching out to displaced voters for the New Orleans election.

"We are more aligned than we would have thought coming into this discussion," Gordon said.

[EFerrari]

1. Is Al Ater running for re-election this year? Sounds like it.

:kick:

[WePurrsevere]

2. Here's hoping ... K & R

:kick:

[shenmue]

3. Good move

Nice to hear about somebody protecting the right to vote for once.

:patriot:

[Anita Garcia]

4. Ater has said he is not seeking election to the post.

<http://www.kplctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4541507>

[annabanana]

5. This certainly deserves a call to the Senators...

If we can stage Iraqi election for displaced Iraqis here in the US..
We can surely facilitate the vote for New Orleanians stuck in Chicago....

[mod mom]

6. k + r

[Wilms]

7. K&R n/t

[EFerrari]

8. kick

[Anita Garcia]

9. Committee splits 3 to 3 on Fields' bill

Senator Fields' bill to allow satellite voting on the day of the election and outside of Louisiana splits in committee 3 to 3.
Senator Dardenne, who is running for Secretary of State, votes against the bill.
The vote was split along racial lines.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

10. Good work again Anita!! What happens now that the Committee vote

is split in LA.? K&R.

:popcorn:

[Anita Garcia]

12. Louisiana Senate panel defeats voter bill supported by Jesse Jackson

<http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4701220>

BATON ROUGE, La. A state senate committee in Louisiana has rejected a bill that would have made it easier for displaced New Orleans residents to vote in the city's mayoral election next month. The bill had been pushed by Jesse Jackson and civil rights groups.

It would have created satellite voting centers in other states so people living elsewhere could vote without going back to Louisiana for the April election. Opponents questioned whether other states would give Louisiana full cooperation.

State officials have taken some steps to help displaced residents vote, including easing restrictions on mail voting and setting up voting offices around the state.

[Anita Garcia]

15. We are going to try again next week different committee

Some excerpts from article about the committee meeting:

Voting for the out-of-state election centers bill were Fields; Sens. Charles Jones, D-Monroe, the panel's chairman; and Reggie Dupre, D-Montegut. Voting against were Sens. Jay Dardenne, R-Baton Rouge; Chris Ullo, D-Marrero; and Noble Ellington, D-Winnsboro.

Sen. Rob Marionneaux Jr., D-Livonia, was absent.

Charlie Buckles of Lafayette, treasurer of the state Republican Party, opposed the bill, saying that voters can cast early ballots in 10 of the largest parishes in Louisiana or can mail in absentee ballots. "People can vote," he said. "They can make a phone call (to request an absentee ballot) and put a 39-cent stamp on it. That solves the problem. This is absurd; it goes too far."

Dardenne criticized the bill as "an invitation to litigation in every sense of the word" because voters in one area could be able to vote at a polling place while voters in another city might not have access.

"The single voter in Dubuque (Iowa) is just as important as the thousands of voters in Dallas," he said. "There are too many holes in (the bill); I can assure you it is a recipe for a challenge. It is fraught with disaster."

Fields said other lawmakers have bills to authorize out-of-state voting in times of emergencies. He said he might ask the committee to reconsider its tie vote at its meeting next week.

If the bills pass the Senate, they might face trouble in the House. The Committee on House and Governmental Affairs is regarded as more conservative on election law changes.

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[Anita Garcia]

14. Fields' response to vote

"If giving people access to the ballot box is fraud and abuse, then let's have fraud and abuse."

Sen. CLEO FIELDS, D-Baton Rouge, on his bill to give the secretary of state's office the authority to set up out-of-state voting centers for citizens displaced by the hurricanes.

<http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index.ssf?/base/news-3/114370639558250.xml>

[RB TexLa]

11. We will have voting machines for the Presidental election this year

here, I don't see why we shouldn't have them for Louisiana.

[Anita Garcia]

13. They would rather spend money on investigation

They would rather spend money on investigating where the people are than admit that they do not know.
If they do not know where they are, how can Louisiana say that they are reaching them to assist them with voting?

From today's briefing book:
A Senate committee Wednesday approved legislation that would set up a new task force to gather information on hurricane-displaced residents and identify their temporary locations as part of an effort to bring them home. Without objection, the Senate Committee on Senate and Governmental Affairs gave its support to Senate Concurrent Resolution 6 by Sen. Charles Jones, D-Monroe. The measure, which does not have the force of law, now goes to the Senate floor. It also must be approved by the House. Jones said the task force would include the secretary of state, the attorney general, two people named by the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee, two people named by the House Committee on House and Governmental Affairs, one person from the Louisiana Recovery Authority named by the governor and one named by the Bring New Orleans Back Commission along with the president of the League of Women Voters of Louisiana, and one person from the board of directors of the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps. The task force would meet no later than July 14. "What are they going to do that is not being done already?" asked Sen. Noble Ellington, D-Winnsboro. "I think we are duplicating some effort." Jones said with at least 300,000 Louisiana residents still living out of state, it may take the work of several groups to bring people home and improve their lives.

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