Registrar: Recall petition against Elton mayor fails

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - A petition to recall Elton Mayor Kesia Lemoine has failed, according to the Jeff Davis Parish Registrar of Voters.

At the time the petition was filed in May, there were 689 qualified electors in the voting area. For a recall election, 40 percent of those (276 voters) would need to sign the petition.

Registrar Joann Blair tells 7NEWS only one of the 322 names on the petition counted.

Here’s her breakdown of the names:

• 48 were not registered voters in Elton
• 1 person has died since signing the petition
• 13 names were duplicated on the petition (some signed on one line but printed on another)
• 2 had suspended voting records
• 5 signatures weren’t complete (missing information like an address, signature, printed name, or date)
• All but 2 lacked a witnesses signature and date

Of the two signatures that were appropriately filled out and witnessed, Blair says one signature did not appear to be authentic. Compared to past signatures collected from that person at the polls, Blair believes the signature on the petition did not belong to that voter.

7NEWS has reached out to Mayor Lemoine and those who filed the recall petition for comment.

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