Saturday is the last day to register to vote at geauxvote.com for the October 14 primary. We asked pollster John Couvillon with JMC Analytics his voter turnout prediction for the primary.
“For right now, of course, this is subject to what I see once early voting starts next Saturday, but my thought right now is in the 40 percent to 45 percent range for total turnout,” said Couvillon.
In 2019 voter turnout was 46 percent for the gubernatorial primary and 51 percent for the runoff.
This year’s race hasn’t drummed up much excitement.
“It’s always easier for the party out of power to have more interests and in this case of course, we’ve had eight years of a Democratic governor and I don’t detect there’s a great deal of enthusiasm from Democrats for Shawn Wilson,” said Couvillon.
On the Republican side, Couvillon said Jeff Landry received backing from the state GOP almost a year ago and no other Republican has taken that away from him.
Couvillon said it is just not the governor’s race that is lacking in voter interest.
“And I have seen that in my polling, some legislative races with undecideds in the 50s and 60s, which one week before early voting to me is unconscionable,” said Couvillon.
Couvillon also believes low unemployment is another reason he anticipates voter turnout to be in the 40 percent to 45 perent range. Currently, there are just under three million registered voters in the state.
