There has been some moaning from pundits and other experts about the low voter turnout in the statewide elections last week. Only 36 percent of registered voters cast their ballots.
According to University of Louisiana-Monroe political scientist Pearson Cross, there were about 200,000 fewer votes in the primary than in the 2019 election when incumbent John Bel Edwards defeated businessman Eddie Risponte.
Why the plunge? Some say that voters have lost their trust in government. Others suggest that the electorate just did not like the the candidates.
But those are not the reasons. Voters frequently have to choose from candidates that they do not particularly like so they have to guess which is the lesser of evils.
I submit that there were other reasons for the low turnout:
- This year’s election was really BORING. There was no serious ideological divide among the candidates. All but one of the major contenders were Republicans. And the others were, at most, moderate.
- Jeff Landry sewed up the election early by getting the endorsement of the state Republican party, thereby discouraging fund raising and endorsement possibilities for the other candidates. From the beginning it was obvious that Landry was going to win, most likely in what would be a lop-side runoff or possibly, as ultimately happened, in the primary.
- There was no good theater. Oh, for the days of quipsters like Edwin Edwards saying of his opponent David Treen that it took him “two hours to watch 60 Minutes” or for the sex scandal allegations that knee-capped front runner David Vitter and opened the way for John Bel Edwards’ upset win.
- Landry did not participate in any televised debates. Why should a front runner make himself a target when he does not need to? All the candidates knew that Landry had to be knocked off his pedestal and a debate would be the best, perhaps the only opportunity. But without Landry the event would be like a bullfight without a bull. Having nothing to spear it was a futile season for matadors.
- Most of all though—and this is a good thing, the voters didn’t feel threatened by the outcome. Some may not have liked the unanimity of opinions with so many candidates from the same party but no voters had reason to fear for their lives or livelihood because of the election. If that had been the case, the turnout would have set new records toward the upside.
Nothing increases voter turnout more than fear. Case in point is the famous 1991 election between Edwin Edwards, a roguish but effective former Governor running for his fourth term, and David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard.
Duke had made a surprising but disturbing entry into politics in a special election for a Metairie state representative seat. Because of his Klan connection the election received national attention. Shortly after winning the seat he ran for the U.S. Senate and though he lost he received a respectable vote against entrenched incumbent J. Bennett Johnston. (That would trigger even more media coverage of Duke for what was seen as perhaps being a threatening sign of America turning to the far right.)
Ultimately the grandest throne was that of the governor’s office.
Duke tried to deflect the baggage that came with having been a Grand Wizard by insisting that his campaign was more about tax relief.
Edwards, ever the entertainer, provided one of Louisiana politics’ all-time greatest quips. Referring to enduring rumors about his own promiscuity, the governor conceded that there was something that he and Duke had in common, “We are both wizards beneath the sheets.”
Ultimately, it was not just minority voters who were threatened by Duke but the business, social, economic, and political leadership of the state who campaigned if not for Edwards certainly against Duke. One bumper sticker slogan that came from the Duke opposition gave Edwards the most backhanded endorsement ever: “Vote for the Crook. It is Important.”
To be fair, there were some voters for Duke whose concern was not race but liberal government overspending and the impact that would have on their own financial security; but the electorate would overwhelmingly decide that voting against Duke was the right thing to do.
On election days a record 78 percent of the state’s 2.2 million voters went to the polls.
All of the nation’s media were watching that night. it was the biggest story in the country with anticipation of a long evening of tabulations. To the contrary, the verdict came swiftly. With the resources of the national media there were exit interviews of voters taken throughout the state so that the results could be estimated even before the polls closed. The tabulations were accurate. Within minutes after the voting places in Louisiana closed, CBS reported that Duke had lost to Edwards by a vote of 39 percent to 61 percent. Duke even lost in his Jefferson Parish home base getting only 40 percent of the vote.
We learned that night that with the right combination of characters and issues and, most of all when there is a perceived threat, voters will turn out.
Ahead would be more peaceful elections held in less dramatic times, but on that night in 1979 the world was listening as the voters of Louisiana turned out because this time, they really believed that their choice mattered.
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