Bryan Kelley, Winn Parish Registrar of Voters and Rotarian of the Day for April 9, presented a report on recent developments on Louisiana elections at Winnfield Rotary Club’s meeting.
Mr. Kelley informed the group that President Trump’s Executive Order titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Election” issued on March 25, 2025, covered several issues including citizenship, security of voting systems, sharing of information among the states and the federal government, prosecution of election crimes, restrictions on absentee or mail in ballots and foreign funding.
The Louisiana legislature has bills up for consideration this session to add campaign-related materials to the prohibitions of electioneering/campaigning within 600 feet of polling places, and to reduce the radius of prohibited electioneering/campaigning to 100 feet from the 600 feet currently in place.
Kelley also said the provisions enacted after the 2019 presidential election requiring the procurement of a new voting system with a paper backup for each ballot cast has almost been completed, and the Louisiana Secretary of State has announced the new system is coming soon, and should be procured within the year. He has volunteered Winn Parish to participate in an early rollout of the new system.
Other bills pending in the Louisiana House of Representatives include one proposing an increase in daily pay for election commissioners, moving all elections for school board members to the same day as the gubernatorial election to save the expense of separate elections for school board members, requiring the secretary of state to publish all Election Code revisions, and requiring that all local reapportionments be signed off on by the Parish Clerk of Court and the Parish Registrar of Voters.
Kelley also announced the Louisiana is now ranked second best in the nation for integrity of elections. Secretary of State Nancy Landry has said she believes we will rank first in the nation when we transition to the new, fully-auditable voting system.