The Louisiana Senate on Saturday morning swiftly passed Republican bills to push back the April primary elections by a month, keeping the plan on track for the House to pass it by the middle of the following week.
Republicans say the change will help give the state more time to respond to a potential ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on a challenge to the state’s congressional voting map.
But on the third day of a special session, Democrats continued to criticize the legislation, arguing it would cause voter confusion and potentially get the state in legal trouble.
“The midterm election process is already underway,” said Sen. Sam Jenkins, D-Shreveport, referring to the fact that the window has already opened to collect signatures to qualify by nominating petition for 2026 congressional races.
“You’re changing rules in the middle of the game,” Jenkins said.
“I’d like to see Brian Kelly do that today for LSU,” he added, referencing a football game scheduled for that evening in Baton Rouge.
Jenkins also argued that pushing back the election dates this close to the election was unconstitutional and interferes with the “Purcell principle,” a Supreme Court precedent that cautions governments against making changes too close to an election date.
“Every page of this bill is asking us to ignore dozens of established election laws,” he said.
Bill sponsor Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, R-Port Allen, disputed the idea that the plan would undermine voting rights.
He noted the Legislature is not moving the elections forward, but pushing them back, which adds more time to the election process.
“This bill does not violate any people’s rights,” he said. “We move elections all the time.”
The Legislature could be working on drawing a new congressional map, Kleinpeter said, but “that’s not what we’re here doing.” Instead, lawmakers are simply waiting for a ruling and more direction from the Supreme Court.
The plan, which consists of Senate Bill 1 and Senate Bill 2, passed on party-line votes.
Should it pass the Legislature as expected, elections for closed party primaries for major races like U.S. House and Senate as well as some municipal primary races that are set for April 18 would be held on May 16 instead.
Five proposed constitutional amendments would also appear on the May 16 ballot.
And there would be a subsequent June 27 election for municipal general races and, if needed, a runoff for the closed party primary contests.
Qualifying would happen Feb. 11 to 13 rather than in mid-January.
Kleinpeter said he expects to present his two bills before the House and Governmental Affairs committee Tuesday, and they will be debated on the House floor Wednesday.
Of the special session as a whole, he said, “If all goes as planned, it will end on Wednesday.”
