Since early October, Louisiana Secretary of State Al Ater, a Democrat,
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:-ycOgleGuOUJ:www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2400/+al+ater++republican+or+democrat&hl=en
Al Ater (Democrat), First Deputy Secretary of State, will serve until a special election is held. Governor Kathleen Blanco called the special election to fill McKeithen's unexpired term for 30 September 2006
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:SowzbkG8P5UJ:www.thegreenpapers.com/G05/LA.phtml+al+ater+republican&hl=en
Ater is a Democrat. Always has been and always will be.
Check out this recent article.
Features > November 16, 2005
Voter Disenfranchisement by Attrition
With friends like FEMA, who needs Jim Crow?
By Benjamin Greenberg
New Orleans residents displaced by Katrina, like Mary Elizabeth Johnson, above, may find it difficult to vote in upcoming elections.
When Hurricane Katrina came ashore in New Orleans, it destroyed half the city’s voting precincts and scattered 300,000 of the city’s residents, most of them black, across the country. With citywide elections still scheduled in February and March for 20 key public offices—including mayor, criminal sheriff, civil sheriff and all city council members—restoring the city’s democratic capability might seem an urgent task to some, but not to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
All evacuees who apply for assistance must tell FEMA who they are, where they lived before they were displaced and where they live now.
Since early October, Louisiana Secretary of State Al Ater, a Democrat,
has been dogging the agency for the names and temporary addresses of evacuees, so he can send them information about how to maintain their right to vote in Louisiana.
Because many evacuees are far from New Orleans and cannot make a special trip home for the elections, their only way to vote will be by absentee ballot. But, citing privacy concerns, FEMA stonewalled Ater for weeks. They finally reached an agreement on November 8, but it is an open question if the compromise will lead to fair elections.
Ater has also requested $750,000 from FEMA for a Nationwide Voter Outreach and Education Campaign.
“Given the inability of the displaced voters of Louisiana to receive local election information via their local news, some kind of extraordinary outreach should be made to educate those voters,” says David J. Becker, election consultant and former senior trial attorney for the voting section of the U.S. Department of Justice. “Otherwise their voting rights may be yet another victim of Hurricane Katrina.”
Many evacuees have moved several times since they first applied for assistance, and they may never receive voter information unless they learn by word of mouth or through the media to contact Ater’s office for ballots. Consequently, Ater is proposing a publicity campaign that would include direct mail, radio and TV public service announcements, satellite media tours and travel for himself and staff members to areas with high concentrations of evacuees.
Why should FEMA pay for this? The Stafford Act, which gives FEMA its role in coordinating relief efforts, provides that FEMA may make contributions towards the repair of damaged public facilities and provide “technical and advisory assistance” for “the performance of essential community services.”
Stonewalling
That's an error. Ater is a Democrat.
http://www.politics1.com/la.htm