Voter turnout will be “dismal” for Saturday’s first statewide election since Hurricane Katrina, Secretary of State Al Ater said Friday.

Ater said he expects between 25 and 30 percent of the state’s 2.9 million voters to cast ballots in an election where the jobs of state insurance commissioner and secretary of state are up for grabs.

“As in any election, it matters if you can turn out your vote, and certainly if there’s going to be a low voter turnout,” said Southern University political scientist Albert Samuels.

Candidates have to court “chronic voters” — usually the more educated, older, white, middle-class voters with conservative tendencies, they said.

Some 40,239 people voted last week during Louisiana’s initial use of “early voting” in a statewide election — not even 1 percent of those eligible, according to official elections statistics.

Most of them — 38,729 people — dropped by registrars’ offices to vote in person instead of waiting until election day. The remainder voted absentee. Some mail ballots are still coming in.

Voters used to be able to vote early only if they said they would be out of town – an absentee — on election day. Now anyone can vote during a pre-election period without giving a reason.

The secretary of state is Louisiana’s top elections officer, whose job it is to insure fair and honest elections. The insurance commissioner oversees insurance companies operating in the state, including rate increase requests. Both, Ater said, are important in post-hurricane Louisiana.

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