United States
Louisiana, USA, 2021 Statewide Local Elections
Hurricane Ida, August 2021
Hurricane Ida made landfall on 29 August 2021 as a Category 4 storm. The storm resulted in 55 direct deaths in the United States (Beven II et al. 2022), about 14 000 displaced (Holcombe et al. 2021) and approximately 90 000 significantly damaged homes (CAPE Property Intelligence 2021). The estimated damage of the hurricane was 75 billion USD (Beven II et al. 2022). Governor John Bel Edwards declared a statewide Emergency on 26 August 2021.
The scope and strength of Hurricane Ida was exacerbated by climate change. The storm travelled over unusually hot water in the Gulf of Mexico where it rapidly intensified jumping from a Category 1 to a Category 4 storm in approximately 24 hours (Hersher 2021).
Impact on the electoral process
On 9 September 2021, Governor John Bel Edwards signed an executive order that formally postponed statewide local elections in Louisiana (State of Louisiana 2021) as recommended by Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin. According to the executive order, the postponements were declared to protect the health and safety of voters and allow for sufficient time for the Office of the State Secretary and partners to prepare for statewide elections that included municipal, judicial, and school board elections. The decision to postpone the election was also driven by the scale of displaced voters and frontline staff, extensive power outages, damage to polling stations used for early voting and election day (State of Louisiana 2021). The election was postponed from 9 October until 13 November 2021 by 35 days. The runoff election was postponed by 28 days from 13 November to 11 December 2021. As a result, voter registration and early voting were rescheduled for the entire election (Thomas & Heyen 2021; Power Coalition for Equity & Justice 2021).
On election day, many voters used alternative polling stations. For example, in some cases portable voting trailers or tents were used or voting stations relocated to a local gym (Muller 2021; Deslatte 2021).
The voter turnout was 13.5-13.7 percent (Staggs, Dawson, Patterson 2021)
Bibliography
‘Executive Order Number 2021 JBE 12, Elections – rescheduled due to statewide state of emergency caused by Hurricane IDA’, State of Louisiana, Executive Department, 9 September 2021, https://gov.louisiana.gov/assets/ExecutiveOrders/2021/2021JBE13ElectionsRescheduled.pdf, accessed 2 December 2025.
Thomas, R., and Heyen, C., ‘Louisiana’s fall 2021 elections rescheduled due to impacts of Hurricane Ida’, KSLA News 12, 8 September 2021, https://www.ksla.com/2021/09/08/fall-2021-elections-la-rescheduled-due-impact-hurricane-ida/?utm_source=chatgpt.com, accessed 2 December 2025.
Beven II, J. L., Hagen, A., and Berg R., ‘Hurricane Ida’, National Hurricane Center, 4 April 2022, https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL092021_Ida.pdf, accessed 2 December 2025.
Holcombe, M., Levenson, E. and Selva, J., ‘About 14,000 people displaced when Ida battered one Louisiana parish, official says’, CNN, 6 September 2021, https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/06/weather/hurricane-ida-recovery-monday, accessed 2 December 2025.
CAPE Property Intelligence, ‘Hurricane Ida: Tracking damage through property-level change detection’, 9 September 2021, https://capeanalytics.com/resources/hurricane-ida-damage/, accessed 2 December 2025.
Hersher, R., ‘How Climate Change Is Fueling Hurricanes Like Ida’, KPBS, 30 August 2021, https://www.kpbs.org/news/2021/08/30/how-climate-change-is-fueling-hurricanes-like-ida, accessed 2 December 2025.
Power Coalition for Equity & Justice, ‘Louisiana Postpones Statewide Elections’, 8 September 2021, https://powercoalition.org/louisiana-postpones-statewide-elections/, accessed 2 December 2025.
Muller, W., ‘Hurricane Ida damage forces relocation of Louisiana polling places’, 11 November 2021, https://lailluminator.com/2021/11/11/some-voters-in-louisianas-bayou-community-will-have-new-polling-locations/, accessed 2 December 2025.
Deslatte, M., ‘Hurricane Ida’s damage forces Louisiana voting site changes’, 19 October 2021, https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-ida-elections-louisiana-voting-storms-a87adc844fb4f296020708f2229c92a3, accessed 2 December 2025.
Staggs, S., Dawson, D., and Patterson, D., ‘Here’s a breakdown of what Louisiana voters decided on major races, amendments on Election Day’, 14 November 2021, https://www.ksla.com/2021/11/14/breakdown-major-races-amendments-election-day-louisiana/, accessed 2 December 2025.
Severe Storms and Hurricanes
