Fourth annual Stroll to the Polls encourages early voting in Lake Charles

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - People all over Southwest Louisiana came out to the Lake Charles Civic Center for the fourth annual ‘Stroll to the Polls’ event.

Those in attendance had the opportunity to walk to the courthouse and cast their ballot as early voting gets underway across the state.

The event was held by the Ward 3 Marshal’s Office in partnership with the Nathan T. Keller Foundation.

Marshal Nathan Keller says the event started in 2022 after hurricanes displaced residents.

“Right after the storms, everyone was displaced, so we wanted a centralized location to make sure that everyone that came back home understood the importance of voting,” Keller said.

He says it’s also a way to encourage younger people to vote.

“Back in the day, it was our elders. On Sundays, they would go voting. They called it souls to the polls. And after church, they would all collectively go and vote. So now what we’re trying to do is not recreate the wheel, but show our young people why it’s so important to vote. That they are the next generation and their vote matters,” Keller said.

McNeese students say they want to make sure their vote counts.

“As I’ve come to college and I became older, I realized that this impacts me a lot more than I originally thought. If I can be a part of the change that I want to see, I’m going to participate,” Tya Livas, secretary of the McNeese NAACP said.

“This is one of the things that our ancestors fought and fought for time to time. So now that we have our time to vote, let’s get out, let’s vote and let’s educate people why to vote because the votes and the decisions that we make on the votes will follow us for the rest of our lives,” Leyla Parker, president of the McNeese NAACP said.