EMILY FENG, HOST:
Today is primary day in Louisiana. Voters are at the polls, but there's a lot of confusion. That's because a little more than two weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court severely weakened the 1965 Voting Rights Act by stripping away voting protections for minority communities. That gave the redistricting race that President Trump set off nearly a year ago a second life. Then Louisiana's Republican governor, Jeff Landry, postponed just the elections for the U.S. House so that the legislature could draw a new voting map for those seats. Other than that, the rest of the primary moved forward today. But these changes have been perplexing for many voters. Drew Hawkins with the Gulf States Newsroom joins us now from outside a polling place in New Orleans. Hi, Drew.
DREW HAWKINS, BYLINE: Hi, Emily.ı
FENG: So I understand you spent a hot and humid day with voters out there. What have they been telling you?
HAWKINS: Well, I'll say, like, thank God a breeze just came through 'cause this Louisiana sun is brutal.
FENG: I hear you.
HAWKINS: But it's a beautiful day here outside the Algiers Courthouse in New Orleans. Got a steady trickle of people at this point, but I've been talking to voters all week, including many who voted early, and, you know, like you mentioned at the top, the word is confusion. I'd really like to highlight two Democratic voters I spoke with, Diana Masters and Ilyssa Parker. Now, they both live in the same neighborhood, so they should have the same ballots, which should also include five state constitutional amendments for them to vote on. But Parker says there were only three on her ballot.
And Masters says her personal sample ballot that she printed out from the Louisiana's secretary of state's website - you know, that form you can print out and mark up and bring with you to the booth - it - that didn't actually match her ballot inside the booth. For instance, she had a place on her ballot to vote in the congressional race, even though that vote won't count. But that race was not on the sample ballot she printed out.
DIANA MASTERS: But that just kind of adds to the confusion. There are people who are actually voting in that race and hoping that their vote actually means something.
HAWKINS: I did reach out to the Louisiana secretary of state's office. They manage the elections, but I didn't get any response from them. So right now, it's unclear how widespread this is. But the state Democratic party told me that they've gotten hundreds of calls from Louisianans saying that they're struggling to vote in the primaries today. Other voters have told me that some people think that the entire election itself has been canceled.
FENG: OK, but there's one race that voters are deciding today, and that's the primary for the U.S. Senate, right? That's gotten a lot of attention because the incumbent in that race, Republican senator Bill Cassidy - he was one of the few Republicans to vote to convict President Trump after the 2021 insurrection at the Capitol, and that has made Cassidy a target of the president and a lot of other Republicans. So what is Cassidy saying about the election?
HAWKINS: Yeah, so, you know, one quick thing I think is important to mention is that this is the first election in Louisiana with a closed primary system. So, you know, you can only vote for candidates in the party that you're registered in. And this is also causing some confusion. Yesterday, Senator Bill Cassidy issued what his campaign called a red alert, saying that voters are being blocked from casting ballots for him because of confusion over a new form required of voters registered as no party. And here he is on a press call yesterday.
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BILL CASSIDY: Too many people are telling us that they're having difficulty and, in some cases, not getting to vote for me even though they intended.
HAWKINS: Now, we don't have any way of verifying Cassidy's claims. Again, the Secretary of State has not responded to requests for comment since I started reaching out on Wednesday. But I did also catch up with Senator Cassidy earlier this week at an event in Lafayette, Louisiana, which is actually where I'm from, where my parents live.
FENG: Oh.
HAWKINS: And I did ask him why Louisiana voters should choose him over a candidate that's been endorsed by President Trump. He said he's focused on completing President Trump's agenda, citing bills that he helped author and the president signed. But, of course, like you mentioned, the question on many voters' minds is, you know, this idea that Cassidy voted to convict Trump. And here's his response to that question.
CASSIDY: So if somebody wants to be stuck in the past, I can't help that. You know, if somebody's thinking about the present and the future, then they're gonna vote for Bill Cassidy.
HAWKINS: Now, I did also try multiple times to talk with Julia Letlow. That's one of Cassidy's opponents. She's the one President Trump did endorse, but her campaign did not get back to me. But because of Louisiana's rules, this race could definitely go to a runoff.
FENG: So Louisiana's elections are the first in the South since that Supreme Court ruling. But I want to pivot to Alabama, which is a state going through a similar redistricting process, and there are protests there today. What's happening there?
HAWKINS: Yeah. In - you know, in both states, we saw elections get postponed as voting was just getting started, which is pretty unprecedented. You know, today, there are rallies at the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery. My colleague Joseph King is covering that. And I just heard my colleague Elise Gregg covering the march in Selma, which is following the same route that civil rights leaders marched in 1965. So there is definitely a movement forming in the Gulf South in response to all of this redistricting going on.
FENG: That is Drew Hawkins, standing right outside a New Orleans voting station. Thank you, Drew.
HAWKINS: Thank you, Emily. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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