Run-off races for Calcasieu Parish take place December 5

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - Voters have some big decisions to make this Saturday in two run-off elections in Calcasieu Parish.

Just over a month after the presidential election, yet another election day is upon us but this time around voters will be focusing on the city marshal run-off races in Lake Charles and Sulphur.

“Even though this is a small election, every election is important. This is the City Marshal.”

Two city marshals to be exact. Nathan Keller and his opponent, Jerod Abshire, are running in Lake Charles and Glenn Berry and his opponent, Brandon Dever, are running in Sulphur.

Calcasieu Parish Registrar of Voters’ Kim Fontenot says it’s important for residents to double check where their polling location is for this election.

“They need to know they can go to their Geaux Vote app on their mobile phones, they can go there and find out where they’re going to be voting because a lot of precincts went back to their old polling places because the presidential we did have the mega sites.”

During early voting for the run-off election, the registrar’s office received 3,400 mail-in ballots.

“This race we had more mail ballots then we had in-person, in-person was very slow compared to 41,000 that we had at the presidential election. This election we only had like 3,000 that showed up for early voting.”

Fontenot says while they aren’t expecting as large of a turnout as they had for the presidential election, she’s encouraging residents to go out and vote.

“Everybody’s vote counts, so, if you want changes or anything like that you need to vote.”

Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. on Dec 5.

Voters are reminded to bring their ID, wear a mask, and practice social distancing.

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