Louisiana's governor, Jeff Landry, has now signed eleven anti-voter bills into law in the last couple of weeks. He started the month off with these seven new suppressive laws:
➜ House Bill 285 requires the state secretary of state’s office to create an election integrity division to perform many duties, including “conducting independent investigations into allegations of election irregularities.”
➜ House Bill 476 restricts people from delivering more than one absentee ballot via mail unless they are sending ballots on behalf of immediate family members.
➜ Senate Bill 155 only allows individuals to assist with more than one absentee ballot if they are helping immediate family members.
➜ Senate Bill 218 requires someone assisting a voter to provide their address and relationship to the voter and reveal if they were paid to assist.
➜ Senate Bill 226 requires that an absentee ballot that is missing information and is not fixed by the voter is considered a challenged ballot that is only counted if the majority of the election board decides it should be.
➜ Senate Bill 449 defines a qualified voter or elector as “a person who has the proper qualifications provided by law to be entitled to vote and who is lawfully registered to vote.”
➜ Senate Bill 101 bans ranked-choice voting in Louisiana elections.
Every single one of these bills was passed with an eye on adding barriers to voting, reducing ballot access, and suppressing participation in Louisiana's elections. Opponents of voting rights are trying to codify their pathway to power in state law instead of winning elections fair and square.
John: We can't stand by when laws like this pass that harm voting rights. Help us fight back in Louisiana and beyond with $25 or whatever you can today and make sure every voice is heard in our elections >>