Online voter registration deadline Saturday

Lincoln Parish residents who want to vote for either a Democrat or Republican candidate in Louisiana’s March 23 presidential preference primary and are not currently registered have until Saturday to sign up through the state’s GeauxVote online registration system.

In- person registration closed earlier this month.

Although anyone can register to vote through the online system, only Democrats and Republicans are eligible to vote in the primary.

That’s because the primary is a closed primary, meaning only major party registrants can vote for their party’s respective candidates. The primaries are closed to all other registered voters.

Crossover voting — Democrats voting for Republicans or vice versa — is also not allowed in a closed primary.

Elections for the Democratic Parish Executive Committee, Democratic State Central Committee, Republican Parish Executive Committee, and Republican State Central Committee are also on the March 23 ballot.

Deadline to request an absentee ballot is 4:30 p.m. March 19, except for miliary and overseas voters.

Early voting for the primary is March 9-16, excluding Sunday, from 8:30 a.m. – 6 p.m. at the Lincoln Parish Registrar of Voters Office, located on the ground floor of the courthouse at 100 West Texas Avenue.

Contenders for the Democrat presidential nominee include President Joe Biden and seven other candidates, none of whom hold national recognition. Contenders for the Republican presidential nominee include former President Donald Trump and former U.N Ambassador Nikki Haley.

The names of former GOP nominee wannabes Ryan Binkley, Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, Asa Hutchinson, and Vivik Ramaswamy also appear on the ballot because they pulled out of the race too late to have their names removed.

Binkley, a pastor and the chief executive of a Texas mergers and acquisitions firm that he founded, dropped out of the race Tuesday and endorsed Trump.

As to the Louisiana party central committee and parish executive committee races, here’s how they work.

The DSCC has 210 members — one male and one female from each of the state’s 105 House districts. Members are elected for fouryear terms.

The RSCC districts are based on Louisiana’s 39 state Senate Districts. The party subdivides those districts based on the number of Republicans living in the district.

The state central committees are the governing bodies for the respective parties. Each committee selects the head of their party and plays a role in selection of delegates to the national presidential nominating conventions.

Each party’s parish executive committee has 12 members elected from districts. However, all the qualifiers for both Democrat and GOP Lincoln Parish committees were unopposed, meaning they are automatically elected.

Here’s a list of the candidates for the party state central committees.

Democratic State Central Committee

District 11A: Kai Macias, Ruston; Danielle Williams, Grambling. District 11B: Richard Anderson, Ruston; Bobby Woodruff, Ruston; Frederick C. Young, Homer. District 12A: No candidates. District 12B: Conrad Cable, Farmerville; Benjamin Eunice, Ruston; Reggie Skains, Downsville.

Republican State Central Committee

District 29A: Larry Sutton, Bienville, unopposed. District 33A: Teresa Flurry Avery, Bernice, unopposed; District 33B: Deanna McCallum, Farmerville, unopposed. District 35A: Rosy Bromell, Ruston, and Jill Hines, Ruston. District 35F: Gary Nunn, Quitman, and Blake Wheelis, Choudrant.