I-Voted stickers are pictured during the first day of early voting for the Nov. 5 election Friday, October 18, 2024, at the Lafayette Parish Registrar of Voters office in Lafayette, La. Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save It is not news to anyone that we live in an intensely politically polarized society in the U.
S. and right here in Louisiana. What is sad and disappointing, from a nonpartisan perspective, is how the act of voting itself has become controversial.
After the October primary in the very important 2023 statewide elections, one individual posted on social media that she no longer felt "comfortable" going to the polls. As the thread of commentary developed, it became apparent that the poster was not afraid of actual violence or intimidation, just a sense that voting itself had become a divisive experience. Casting a vote means having a voice and taking a stance.
What a person stands for may be different from the views of their family and friends. They might wonder why you voted and for whom you voted. You might be separating yourself from the flock.
In some communities, even nonpartisan education and advocacy around voting and elections has become too hot to handle. In October 2023, the Festivals Acadiens et Créoles in Lafayette scheduled the height of festival to occur on the primary election day. But the festival does not allow voter information and registration tables or anything "political.
" And the Lafayette festival was not alon.
