New early-voting location OK'd for N.O. elections

BATON ROUGE -- A new early-voting satellite location will be in operation for the New Orleans city elections in February, according to a plan approved Thursday by a joint House-Senate committee.

The House and Senate Committees on Governmental Affairs unanimously approved a proposal from Secretary of State Jay Dardenne to use the Orleans Parish Voting Machine Warehouse, 8870 Chef Menteur Highway, as an early voting site for all elections.

Commissioner of Elections Angie LaPlace said the first-year cost to convert the warehouse to a voting center will be between $62,000 and $68,000, and will include personnel, purchase of voting machines and laptop computers as well as wiring the facility for balloting.

Those costs will drop to between $18,000 and $22,000 a year after the initial installation and purchases, LaPlace said.

For the New Orleans elections, that means early voting will begin Jan. 23 and end Jan. 30, Dardenne spokesman Jacques Berry said.

For other elections Dardenne has designated the State Archives in Baton Rouge and the town hall in Sulphur as well as public buildings in Monroe and Bogalusa as early voting sites.

Two years ago the Legislature approved early voting as a way to make it easier to cast ballots. Before that, a voter had to claim to be out of town on election day to vote absentee.

The new site in New Orleans, Dardenne said, was chosen because "it is safe for our voters and safe for our voting machines. It is easily accessible with good parking," unlike the downtown City Hall early voting site.

The warehouse site will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., daily, except Sundays for the two weeks leading up to the elections.

Dardenne dropped a related plan to save $10,000 to $15,000 by limiting the early voting at the satellite locations in Orleans, Calcasieu and East Baton Rouge parishes to seven days for major elections -- such as for president, Congress, governor, or mayor -- and opening them in those areas for four days in lower-turnout races.

Dardenne said he did not like that alternative but felt he had to make a move to cut costs for elections.

"It is a minimum cost savings," he said.

"If we are talking about a $10,000 to $15,000 savings in a $30 billion budget, I don't know if we want to make that change. I don't want to trivialize it ... but I don't know if it outweighs voters confusion" on when the satellite locations are open for early voting and when they are closed, said Rep. Rick Gallot, D-Ruston, chairman of the House panel.

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Ed Anderson can be reached at eanderson@timespicayune.com or 225.342.5810.