BATON ROUGE – Governor Jeff Landry signed an executive order Monday morning that he said will preserve the “integrity” of Louisiana’s electoral process ahead of the November election.
The order requires all state agencies to inform all persons presented with a voter registration application that it is illegal for noncitizens to vote in Louisiana.
Federal law requires all government agencies that provide public services to facilitate voter registration. In addition, the heads of government agencies that require voter registration must work with the Secretary of State and the Attorney General to ensure that noncitizens are not registered to vote.
Secretary of State Nancy Landry says 48 noncitizens have been purged from the state’s voter rolls since 2022. She argues that every ineligible voter hurts the state’s elections.
“Every election season there are several races that are decided by fewer than 48 votes, including my first election, which was decided by 33 votes. So every vote matters, and every ineligible voter who is registered to vote opens the door for an ineligible voter to cast a ballot,” she said.
She also announced that she would prosecute those who voted illegally.
The governor said non-citizen voting was a problem that had arisen in elections in states like Virginia.
“Virginia recently removed 6,000 noncitizens from its voter rolls, underscoring the fact that noncitizens are registering to vote in our country,” he said.
Democratic state Rep. Edmond Jordan (Baton Rouge) says the number of illegal votes is not worth the intensive investigation the governor and his administration are devoting to the issue. He adds that it could even lead to legal voters not registering.
“Within two years, 48 out of hundreds of thousands of people have registered to vote. Voting is a fundamental right. Any attempt to suppress or deter voters is something we must fight at all costs,” Jordan said.
