How Much of Lafayette Parish Turned Out to Vote in Tuesday’s Elections?

LAFAYETTE PARISH, La. (KPEL News) - Just over 45 percent of Lafayette Parish voters turned out to vote in Tuesday's midterm elections, down slightly from the 2018 midterm elections in 2018.

Just over 72,000 voters cast a vote in the U.S. Senate race for John Kennedy, which had the most votes cast in any race on the ballot, according to the Louisiana Secretary of State's election website. That's a turnout of 45.3 percent, compared to the 45.1 percent who cast votes in the 3rd Congressional District race (72,047 total votes).

Election results are not officially confirmed until later.

Among other parish-wide races, the turnout wasn't nearly as high. Of the eight constitutional amendments, only the second one on the ballot broke 70,000 votes cast, signaling a dropoff from the top of the ballot.

Past Turnout

In 2018, 77,316 voters (51.1 percent) cast a ballot in the 3rd Congressional race, which saw Congressman Clay Higgins win re-election the first time. There was not as big a dropoff between that race and the amendments that were on that ballot.

However, the presidential election in 2020 saw a massive turnout in Lafayette Parish. 114,521, or 71.6 percent, of eligible voters showed up at the polls. The hotly contested Presidential race that year was the driving factor.

Run-off Turnout

23 percent of voters turned out on December 6, 2018, for a runoff election for Secretary of State. However, that was the only major race on that ballot.

On December 10 of this year, there will be a city judge race on the ballot in Lafayette, but there does not seem to be much on the ballot to drive the whole parish out. There are three more constitutional amendments on the ballot next month.