New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell has filed a lawsuit to stop the Secretary of State's Office from intervening in the recall effort.
Two weeks ago, recall leaders and the Secretary of State's Office reached an agreement to reclassify 25,000 registered voters as inactive for the purpose of the recall. Cantrell's suit claims that Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin acted outside of his constitutional and statutory authority in negotiating that settlement.
Recall organizers say they're not surprised.
"I've been waiting for this," recall campaign vice chair Eileen Carter told WWL's Newell Normand. "(Recall chair) Belden (Batiste) and I have been waiting for this."
Carter says the only reason the Secretary of State is involved is because the Orleans Parish Registrar of Voters Office failed to do its job of keeping the voter rolls up to date.
"We didn't know this was going to be an issue," Carter said. "Trust me, I wish it weren't even an issue. I thought my government was going to work for me."
Carter denies a claim made by Cantrell advisor Bill Rousselle that Ardoin's involvement would set a dangerous precedent of removing voters from the active rolls before future election. Carter says the secretary of state is not trying to disenfranchise voters. She says he's trying to clean up the voter rolls and fix a broken system within the Orleans Parish Registrar of Voters Office.
"How is it okay for a government to say you have to deal with this?," Carter asked. "We know it's messed up. We know for years we've never done it. We've never cleaned up. We've never done this part of the process, but you just have to deal with that."
Carter says Ardoin got involved to ensure fairness in the recall certification process.
"I wanted the real number from the beginning," Carter said. "Give us the real number. That's what we want."
