January 31, 2026

Greetings League Members and Friends!

We are getting off to a very strong start in 2026, as we head into the midterm primaries, with a grant from the organization Unite America to conduct listening and learning sessions all over the state on the topic of Closed Party Primaries. As many of you know, as a result of a law passed in the Louisiana Legislature’s First Extraordinary Session in January 2024, we now have closed party primaries in federal elections for U.S. Senate and Congress, as well as certain state offices, including BESE, PSC, and the Louisiana Supreme Court. These elections will no longer take place as open primaries, even though a majority of Louisiana voters overwhelmingly prefer the completely open “jungle” primary.

While neither the national nor the state League has a position on primary elections, your Louisiana League is seeking to use project to: (1) have a conversation about closed primaries that voters didn’t get to have when they were thrust upon us with the new law, and (2) to educate voters about the importance of primary elections generally, and (3) to envision the kinds of election systems and structures that best meet the needs of voters.

Some of the concerns about closed party primaries that the League wishes to explore in this project, aside from their well-documented tendencies to result in more partisan candidates and elections, include data suggesting that closed primaries: (1) reduce voter participation overall, (2) reduce participation by unaffiliated “No Party” voters, and (3) through the aforementioned factors also specifically reduce the participation of young voters who are insufficiently engaged in voting and have recently tended to register as unaffiliated voters.

Election systems and structures are something we are already thinking about at the League. Did you know that LWVLA has seats as an organization on not one, but two, legislative studies/task forces on elections and voting? The first is Rep. Mandie Landry’s Study on Election Frequency and the second is Sen. Royce Duplessis’s Task Force on Ensuring Voter Participation in the Political Process. Both bodies had meetings in 2025, and LWVLA President Christy Green and LWV of Tangipahoa President Alma Chasez testified just this week about empowering young voters.

Other topics bubbling up around the Louisiana Leagues in January were voter education through the League’s award-winning VOTE411 platform and national developments around data privacy. VOTE411 will be coming to you again with the scheduled May and June federal midterm primaries, which will also include statewide constitutional amendments (including that one we’re closely watching on the civil service) and other state and local offices and initiatives. We’re in the process of loading up our dedicated Louisiana “white label” VOTE411 page with all the latest information, including candidate responses to our questionnaire.

On the data privacy front, Louisiana was the first state to hand over the information of 2.9 million voters to be uploaded to a federal database—but other states have resisted and been sued by the Department of Justice to turn over the data. On January 15, LWV secured a victory in California by getting the DOJ suit to compel the data release dismissed in federal court.

LWVLA continues our data privacy litigation in the LWV v. DHS lawsuit. In November, we filed a State of Records Notice (SORN) comment with the Department of Homeland Security, objecting to the new database, and we filed a further comment with the Social Security Administration in December. In late January, we also filed an amended complaint detailing the harm to voters and Leagues in Louisiana, Virginia, and Texas. All the details regarding the LWV v. DHS suit can be accessed at the LWV Legal Center’s dedicated page.

The “Unite & Rise 8.5” campaign to register, educate, and activate 8.5 million voters continues—and Louisiana is seeking to reach 160,000 Louisiana voters before the 2026 midterm elections. As always, if you’re not with us yet as a League member, join us, tell your friends, and consider a donation to fund our work. From voter education to protection of voting rights and democracy itself, your League is working for you!

In League,

Your LWVLA State Board

Upcoming Events in January:

  • February 14, Valentine’s Day, LWV’s 106th Birthday
  • February 16, President’s Day
  • February 17, Mardi Gras