More than 2,500 cast early votes in Vermilion Parish

The Nov. 4 election day is less than a week away, but many in Vermilion Parish have already made decisions.
Early voting ended Tuesday around the state, with 448 voters visiting the Vermilion Parish Registrar of Voters Office to cast ballots on the final day.
“Early voting went relatively well,” Vermilion Parish Registrar of Voters Mike Bertrand said Wednesday.
In all, 2,112 voters went in person to Bertrand’s office to take advantage of early voting, which took place from Oct. 20-27. Combined with absentee mail-in votes and votes taken at nursing homes in the parish, 2,570 have already voted in the parish.
The number falls less than what was seen in the parish during the 2012 presidential election.
“We had around 4,500 early voters during that time,” Bertrand said. “Of course that was a much bigger election.”
The 2,000-plus who voted early in person did not have to wait long.
“Most of the voters came prepared with sample ballots,” Bertrand said. “That made things move quickly.
“The voters were well prepared.”
Voting for next Tuesday will shift to the various voting precincts around Vermilion Parish. The polls will open at 6 a.m. and remain so until 8 p.m.
Those who have questions regarding precincts can contact Bertrand’s office at 893-4324. Registered voters can also visit Secretary of State Tom Schedler’s website, www.sos.la.gov, to obtain precinct locations.
“You can type your name in and all of the information will come up,” Bertrand said. “It is a useful site because you can also pull up a sample ballot for your respective precinct.”
Schedler said this week that he expects 50 percent of Louisiana’s 2.9 million registered voters to cast ballots for this election. Bertrand said Vermilion Parish will likely see around the same turnout.
“It usually falls in line with the rest of the state,” Bertrand said. “Your going to see some areas in the parish, where there are some big races, have a bigger turnout.”