BATON ROUGE -- A bill to let displaced Louisiana voters cast ballots in out-of-state centers failed
by one vote Wednesday in a Senate committee.
The same committee approved a proposal to allow election officials to automatically mail to the dispersed voters absentee ballots for all elections without the displaced voters asking for them.
The Committee on Senate and Governmental Affairs deadlocked 3-3 on Senate Bill 437 by Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, to authorize Secretary of State Al Ater to devise out-of-state election plans in times of emergencies or disasters. The same panel voted 4-2 for Fields' Senate Bill 291, which would require election officials to send absentee ballots to voters displaced from their home parish. That measure now goes to the full Senate.
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If the bills pass the Senate, they might face trouble in the House. The Committee on House and Governmental Affairs is regarded as more conservative on election law changes.
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