The Louisiana Secretary of State’s reported unofficial turnout to be 36.3% in the Republican primary and 23.3% in the Democratic primary. However, actual turnout of registered voters was much lower because more than 750K registered voters were ineligible to vote.
Only voters registered as Republicans or Democrats could participate in the presidential preference primary, and only in the party’s primary for which they were registered. This was a policy change instituted by both parties since the last presidential election. As a result, thousands of registered voters were turned away from the polls because they were not registered as a member of that particular party.
Typical “primary” elections in Louisiana are nonpartisan and coincide with the general election.
Others were turned away when they arrived at polling stations not tied to their registrations.
A total of 612,782 people voted in the state’s presidential primary, representing a turnout of 21% of registered voters. There are 2,918,681 registered voters in Louisiana, but only 59% were registered Democrats or Republicans. The other 41% of registered voters were ineligible.
Turnout in the Texas primary was 29.8%. Even after excluding ineligible voters, Louisiana’s turnout was 28.3%, still lower than Texas.
Nonetheless, Louisiana’s turnout nearly doubled from 2012.
