In person early voting has concluded. Here’s what the numbers tell us about next Saturday’s primary: (1) Lower turnout than last year’s election: 222,162 have early or absentee voted as of yesterday. This volume is 6% lower than it was at the end of in person early voting for the November 2014 primary (236,088 early/absentee […]
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RSS feed for this sectionDecision 2015: Early Voting “Half Time Report”
Three days of early voting have occurred for the October 24, 2015 primary (early voting ends this Saturday). What have the numbers cumulatively told us ? (1) Slowdown in activity: As of yesterday, 88,184 early voted or mailed in their ballot. This is 8% less than the early voting volume after three days of early […]
Decision 2015: Day 1 Early Voting Report
Early voting is now underway for the October 24, 2015 primary. What did yesterday’s numbers tell us ?
Turnout drop-off in “down ballot” races: what are the political implications?
In the elections world, human and machine imperfection are variables that have to be factored in when discussing election results, turnout, and the like. Some of those imperfections can prevent every vote cast from being counted – a reality that became apparent during the Florida recount in the 2000 Presidential race. For this article, we are […]
The “spin free truth” about Louisiana’s “cell phone voters”
Two decades ago, the advent of the Internet (specifically, the widespread use of the World Wide Web) transformed the PC from a niche product into something that has become commonplace in nearly every household. Similarly, the telephone has seen a similar transformation. Early on (in the late 1990s), the cell phone became affordable to the […]
Louisiana Census Data as of July 1, 2014
About a year ago, we had noticed that Louisiana’s population had grown 2% between April 1, 2010 (the date the Census was last taken) and July 1, 2013. This past week, the Census released population estimates by county/parish as of July 1, 2014, and Louisiana (slow) population growth continued – the 2014 estimate showed there […]
“One man, one vote” – Time to redistrict East Baton Rouge Parish’s District Court ?
HISTORY Appropriate minority representation in Louisiana’s judicial branch is an issue that has been much litigated over the years, and there is a reasonable likelihood of further litigation to come.
Decision 2014 – Behind the defeat of Mary Landrieu
After three terms of service, Senator Mary Landrieu was defeated in the December runoff 56-44%. While pundits attributed her defeat to the unpopularity of President Obama in Louisiana, the seeds of her defeat were sown long before that.
Decision 2014 – JMCEL scorecard as of August 31
Primary season is coming to a close – 44 states have now decided their party’s nominees for federal and statewide offices. Since Labor Day traditionally is the time that voters begin to pay attention to political campaigns, this is a good time to revise the scorecard.
Decision 2014: Shrinking the (East Baton Rouge Parish School) Board – JMCEL’s alternative “5-4” plan
In a recent article, we had discussed and analyzed the recently revised redistricting plan for the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board, given that they chose to shrink its size from 11 to 9 members. This redistricting plan was drawn with five white and four black majority districts, according to 2010 Census data. What this […]