Hurricane Katrina didn't just knock down trees and buildings - it knocked out voters too.
The Louisiana Secretary of State's office lost 21,192 people from its 2,834,175 registered voters on Aug. 15. Many of these people were dropped intentionally by the state and were likely residents who fled post-Katrina.
Angie LaPlace, state elections commissioner, said the Secretary of State's Office began sharing voter registration data with Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Texas and Colorado in 2006 after New Orleans residents were displaced.
The State Elections Division worked with the counties where there were citizens with dual registration, including Jefferson and Orleans parishes. Fifty-five thousand people were possibly registered in Louisiana and another state.
Because it is illegal to be registered in more than one state, LaPlace said these people had to be removed from either Louisiana's voter rolls or the other state in which they were registered.
"We initially gave those who were registered both here and another state 30 days to notify us and cancel their registration," LaPlace said.
LaPlace said at least 6,000 were canceled as valid voters because they notified the Secretary of State's Office and confirmed their residence in another state.
After the initial 30-day letter, 12,383 people received a 21-day notice letter stating they would be dropped from voter rolls if they did not cancel their out-of-state voter status by Aug. 15.
Many of those contacted did not respond to the letters, LaPlace said.
"We had no choice but to drop those we had not heard from," LaPlace said.
LaPlace said the voters dropped could be the result of Katrina displacement, and others simply moved to another state and registered.
Orleans Parish, which received the most damage due to Hurricane Katrina, removed the most voters from its rolls with 6,734, LaPlace said.
Dennis DiMarco, Jefferson Parish registrar of voters, said 2,619 names were removed from its voter rolls.
"These were people we assumed had permanently moved out of the parish," he said.
DiMarco said the loss of voters could be attributed to a variety of reasons.
"Ninety to 95 percent of the voter loss is related to Katrina," DiMarco said. "Rents have gone up, insurance complications and flooding all played a role in the displacements."
DiMarco said there is no way of knowing whether the dropped voters will move back and re-register.
"It's hard to say if any are going to come back," he said. "If someone takes the time to register and vote somewhere else, there's agood chance they're gone."
DiMarco said he is optimistic that more voters will not be dropped.
"This may not be the end, but we hope the number to stay small," DiMarco said.
East Baton Rouge Parish was among those reporting voter loss. Elaine Lamb, East Baton Rouge Parish Registrar of Voters, said her office reviewed the list June 18.
"Our job was to check each voter as closely as we could," Elaine Lamb said. "We then purged those who had not contacted us and told us they wanted to be left on voter rolls."
One thousand, four hundred ninety-two were dropped from East Baton Rouge Parish's rolls, Lamb said.
--- Contact Nanci Velez at nvelez@lsureveille.com
Be the first to comment on this article!