Gov. Landry, lawmakers disrupt how Louisiana has voted for nearly 50 years

The election system Louisiana has used almost exclusively since the 1970s is being replaced — sort of. 

State lawmakers approved a bill Friday that eliminates open primaries for a handful of notable elections. It will also make it difficult for anyone who’s not a Democrat or Republican to run for office in Louisiana, an underlying motive of the proposal’s main proponent, Gov. Jeff Landry, who is expected to sign it into law. 

House Bill 17, sponsored by Rep. Julie Emerson, R-Carencro, passed the Senate in a 29-9 vote, and the House of Representatives concurred with major changes in a 67-36 vote. The decision fell largely along party lines, with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed. The House saw handfuls of defections from both parties, while Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, was the only member of his chamber to go against the flow.

The final version of the bill creates closed party member-only primary elections for Congress, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Louisiana Public Service Commission and Louisiana Supreme Court. 

An amendment tacked on Friday allows no-party voters to participate in the party primaries, but that exception does not apply to third-party voters, including members of the recognized Independent Party. 

The governor also had wanted the bill to take effect this year in time for the upcoming congressional elections. Lawmakers agreed to put it in place for 2026.

Emerson’s original proposal also allowed a candidate to win a party primary with a simple plurality, receiving the most votes out of a pool of candidates but less than 50% of the total. Instead, the bill was changed to require a party runoff between the top two vote-getters if no candidate receives more than 50% support.   

Only eight states require party-only primary candidates to win more than 50% of the vote before advancing to a general election.

Sen. Jay Luneau, D-Alexandria, warned the legislation could have a corrupting effect on Louisiana’s judicial system by encouraging candidates to run on extreme platforms to appeal to their bases in a closed party primary. 

Louisiana is one of only a handful of states that choose judges through partisan elections.

With the exception of congressional races in 2008 and 2010, Louisiana has had open, nonpartisan “jungle” primaries in which candidates of any party run in the same election. Any registered voter, regardless of party affiliation, can cast a ballot for any candidate. The top two finishers, regardless of party, advance to a general election unless one receives more than 50% of the vote, as Landry did in October’s jungle primary. 

The new law does away with just about all of that for the impacted elections. Republican and Democratic candidates will now have to run in their own partisan primaries. Republicans can vote in the Republican primary, and Democrats can vote in the Democratic primary. Voters who aren’t in a party can choose a primary but cannot vote in both. 

Members of any official third-parties in Louisiana, such as the Green Party or Libertarian Party, will have a very difficult time trying to run for office. In order to hold a primary election, a third party must have fielded a statewide office candidate who received at least 5% of the votes cast in the most recent statewide election or 5% of electors in the most recent presidential election. Currently, only the Democrats and Republicans meet that requirement. 

The only other way a third-party candidate can qualify for a general election is to obtain a nominating petition with a certain number of signatures, depending on the seat. The signatures cannot come from Democrats, Republicans or voters of any other party and must come from the areas represented. The signatures must be obtained within 120 days. 

Senators pull back on Gov. Landry’s closed party primaries proposal

This aspect of the bill caused particular concern for Rep. Joe Stagni, R-Kenner, who has a sizable number of Independent and no-party constituents. He pointed out Louisiana ranks among the top 10 states on the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Election Integrity Scorecard. 

“The difference is we elect people, not parties, and every person ought to have the opportunity to qualify for that seat,” Stagni said. 

The Emerson bill creates steep hurdles for third-party candidates while allowing Democrats and Republicans to qualify for a race by simply paying a fee, Stagni said. 

Emerson insisted that major party candidates also face obstacles. 

“I would argue that the candidates of the other two parties have to go through the additional hurdle of having to be in the primary,” she said.

Noting the current system might have room for improvement, Emerson said Louisiana has too many elections, suggesting her bill would solve the issue. When Rep. Larry Bagley, R-Stonewall, pressed her on how it would reduce the number of elections, Emerson clarified that it wouldn’t.

“I’m just trying to change the process of how people get elected,” she said.

Because the bill makes allowances only for unaffiliated voters, Rep. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, said it will likely prompt many third-party members to change their registration to unaffiliated just so they can vote in the primaries. 

A Senate committee voted Thursday to limit the bill to only congressional and Louisiana Supreme Court races, but Sen. Mike Fesi, R-Houma, restored most of those provisions on the Senate floor Friday. Legislative and other statewide races are not included in the final version.

Fesi also authored the amendment to allow unaffiliated voters to participate in the party primaries.

“This basically fixes some of the worries that everybody has about not allowing voters to vote,” he said. 

Without that amendment, the proposal would have effectively locked more than 820,000 Louisiana voters out of primaries. That’s roughly 27% of state voters who are neither Republicans nor Democrats. About 662,000 aren’t registered with any party, 134,000 are Independents, 16,000 are Libertarians, 2,600 are Green Party members and 6,700 are registered with other minor parties.  

Emerson and other proponents of the bill have claimed, incorrectly, that most other states have closed party primaries similar to what Louisiana will use. In fact, a majority of states have some form of open or partially open primaries that allow voters, regardless of party, to vote, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Only 17 states have closed or partially closed primaries.