Registrar of Voters Shanie Bourg has taken the time to answer every question she has been asked during the current election cycle. In fact, Bourg has anticipated questions which voters may harbor about the process in an information packed piece, sort of a technical manual on how Louisiana elections are conducted.
If any remain, she invites anyone to contact the Registrar’s office.
Election Responsibilities
- Secretary of State (SOS) oversees everything related to elections and works hand-in-hand with the Clerks of Court (COC) and Registrar of Voters (ROV).
- Early voting and Absentee by Mail voting is the responsibility of the Registrar of Voters.
- Election Day voting is the responsibility of the Clerks of Court who work hand-in-hand with the certified SOS Voting Machine Warehouse employees.
- Elections & Voter Registration is mandated by the Louisiana Election Code Title 18 of the Louisiana Revised Statues.
Early Voting and Absentee by Mail Tabulation
- On Election Day the Parish Board of Election Supervisors (PBES) meet to begin tabulating Early Voting In Person Votes and Absentee by Mail Ballots.
- The PBES members include the Clerk of Court, the Registrar of Voters, a member of the Democratic Party, and a member of the Republican Party, and a member appointed by the Governor.
- The day before the election the PBES meets to begin the verification process for all Absentee by Mail ballots. We verify all ballots are accounted for and the information on the affidavit flap is accurate.
- Once verified, and to keep votes confidential, the affidavit flaps are separated from the ballot envelope first. The affidavit flaps are stored in a secure location and the unopened ballot envelopes are placed into a secure locked cabinet until the following day, which is Election Day.
- On election day when the PBES convenes again, we count the envelopes one more time to make certain all are accounted for and then begin opening the ballot envelopes and scanning the paper ballots
- Also on Election Day, the Public and Protective Counts of every early voting machine are verified once again, as well as the security seals that were placed on the machines during the testing process to ensure no machine was tampered with since the end of early voting.
- The security seal is removed from each machine so we can obtain the Results Drive. Once all Results drives have been removed, they are ready to be read into the tabulation laptop. This is a standalone laptop and it is not connected to any sort of network.
- Before reading the Results Drives and before scanning any absentee ballots, we print Zero Proof Reports showing there were no results, especially no test results, remaining in the database. All reports are time and date stamped.
- Once all Results Drives have been read into the tabulation laptop and all absentee paper ballots have been scanned, they are tallied together to produce the Final Early Voting/Absentee Results Report.
- Before Elections Results are certified 3 days after the election, we audit the Early Voting/Absentee turnout to ensure every vote was counted. To do this we print a report from the ERIN system that tells us how many paper ballots we should have and how many In Person votes were cast during early voting less anything that was rejected by the PBES due to paper ballots that were over voted, damaged, blank, or voters that did not fill out their affidavit appropriately and did not come in to “cure” their ballot. This means, if my turnout was supposed to be 10,552, then my final early voting tabulation turnout should reflect the same. There is no 3rd party involved in this tabulation process.
Voter Registration
- The Registrar of Voter’s office must operate in accordance with the laws set forth by the Election Code.
- The ERIN system is maintained by the Secretary of State’s office and only Registrar’s & SOS Elections staff have access to the Voter Registration Portal.
- This is used to register voters, update voter’s information, early vote voters, conduct redistricting, keep up with jurisdictions, run reports, etc.
- The ERIN system keeps track of every change made to a voter’s record. It keeps track of who made any type of change to a voter’s record, the change that was made, and the date and time it was done. In addition, any type of correspondence mailed to a voter, any type of form a voter has completed, and any piece of mail that is returned to our office is time/date stamped and scanned into that voters records. There are no 3rd party vendors involved.
- Part of our daily work includes checking the local obituaries and funeral home websites. Each person is researched to determine if they are a registered voter in our parish. If they are, we scan the obituary to their record and remove them from the voter rolls.
- Each year in May and June we canvass our voter rolls to verify voter’s residential address by working with the United States Post Office National Change of Address. This process is very involved and there are many different reports involved since voters fall into several different categories. Canvass goes on for 4 to 6 weeks to allow voters time to receive any correspondence sent to them that they must complete and return to us.
- Prior to this year, we also used the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) to assist with canvass which would help us identify voters that were registered in Louisiana and another state. This was extremely helpful in ensuring voters voting in Louisiana were not voting in another state as well. Sadly, Louisiana is no longer a part of ERIC. We hope this changes in the near future.
- If a voter is mailed an Address Confirmation Notice and they do not respond within 30 days, BY LAW, we have to mark them as Inactive. Inactive does not mean a voter cannot vote. It means they must verify their address before they can be allowed to vote. HOWEVER, if they do not respond AND do not vote in the next two (2) federal elections they will be removed from the voter rolls.
- It is not unusual for there to be a spike in Voter Registration before a big election, or an election that has a heated race. Many voters only vote during Presidential elections and some just register to have an additional means of address verification and have no intention of ever voting. We have been told by the person registering on more than one occasion. It is their right to register and we cannot make someone vote if they choose not to.
- If anyone comes to your home regarding voter registration, they are not from our office. We will not do that. We will send mail-outs, or attempt to reach you by phone or email if it is urgent AND we have that information on file. If someone from our office calls you and you feel wary it is not a legitimate call from us, say that you need to call us right back. There is nothing wrong with being extra cautious.
- Voter intimidation is completely unacceptable, against our policy and will not be tolerated. The Registrar of Voters office is transparent and will remain that way. We are here to help our voters any way we can.
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