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West Feliciana Parish district error may have affected about 10% of registered voters in the parish
WEST FELICIANA — A mapping error left hundreds of voters in West Feliciana Parish assigned to the wrong districts for years.
According to the West Feliciana Registrar of Voters' Office, the problem dates back to the 2022 redistricting when the map was not properly entered into the system. Officials said about 800 voters were assigned to the wrong districts or precincts.
School board candidate Elijah Lewis said the change affected his campaign and moved him from District 7, meaning he can no longer vote for himself.
According to registration statistics from the Louisiana Secretary of State's Office, West Feliciana Parish had 7,872 registered voters this year. That means the roughly 800 voters affected by the error account for about 10% of registered voters in the parish.
Political analyst James Hartman said an error of this size carries weight in small communities where elections can hinge on razor-thin margins.
"We have very small municipalities. We have some small parishes, including West Feliciana, where elections are sometimes decided by a very small margin. You know, the city of Mandeville once elected a mayor by 2 votes. That's a city of 14,000 people. West Feliciana has 15,000 people. So for there to be 800 bad registrations, that's 5% of the population," Hartman said.
Hartman said the problem can fuel distrust in government and elections.
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Kareem Crayton of the Brennan Center for Justice said correcting such an error can raise questions about fairness, adding that once an election concludes, overturning the outcome is difficult.
"Precautions to ensure that before the election happens, we have everything right. Because rarely, although increasingly with the Supreme Court, it's not always the case, we're not able to go back and undo elections once they are completed," Crayton said.
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