Posted on 02/05/2006 7:29:33 AM PST by Libloather
Louisiana wants to help its displaced voters vote
Official: They fled to every state but Alaska
Sunday, February 5, 2006
New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin talks about the federal response to his city's disaster as he addresses fellow mayors, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2006 in Washington. Mayors from across the country gathered for the 74th Winter meeting of the The United States Conference of Mayors. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
WASHINGTON - Louisiana officials are preparing to send out nearly 1 million mailers as part of a campaign to tell voters who fled the wrath of Hurricane Katrina how to cast ballots from afar.
"It's unfair to think that displaced people would be election experts," Secretary of State Al Ater of Louisiana said yesterday during a conference of secretaries of state.
Ater said he wants every voter who had to leave Louisiana to have "the opportunity to participate, if they want, and that the bar is no higher for them to participate than it is if somebody's home didn't get destroyed."
In contrast, Mississippi faces fewer challenges because many of those who were displaced along the coast moved inland but are still in the state, its secretary of state, Eric Clark, told the conference.
Nancy Worley, Alabama's top election official, said that her state is more prepared for disasters because it was hit by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
"As a result of that experience, we had learned a great deal about preparation," Worley said.
Still, Worley added, her office is only now getting reports from some of the polling places damaged by Katrina.
Louisiana officials estimated that 400,000 registered voters were displaced by Katrina. Displaced voters have moved to every state except Alaska, Ater said. No estimates of displaced voters were immediately available for Mississippi and Alabama.
Before Katrina intervened, voters in New Orleans had been scheduled to pick a mayor and other city officials yesterday. Elections are now planned for April 22, with a runoff, if necessary, on May 20.
In a word ... yes.I have not lived in Louisiana for a long time ... but, when I left, the law said that one may have more than one residence [e.g. a "home" and a "summer home"] ... but only one domicile. The key word here is domicile, which has an aura of permanence and primary and main, as opposed to residence which may have a temporary, part-time element involved.
An excellent illustration of residence versus domicile would be the late Mathilda Geddings Gray of Lake Charles who had many homes [residences] including ... one on Esplanade at Royal in New Orleans ... Evergreen Plantation on the West Bank of the Mississippi River [Edgard, LA IIRC] ... one in Paris [France] ... one in Montevideo [Uruguay] ... one in New York City [IIRC] ... and one on Shell Beach Drive in Lake Charles where she was domiciled.
I first became aware of the distinction between domicile and residence when Dutch Morial [took office in 1978 IIRC] ran for Mayor as a "resident" of his law office address [on Magazine Street IIRC] rather than his home [domicile] wherever that was.
Any FReeper with current knowledge of LA's law on domicile versus residence, and especially how that relates to eligibililty to vote in LA ... and/or run for office in LA [Nagin living in TX] ... is invited to weigh in on this topic.
I suspect this is a very grey area indeed right now.
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