Lawsuit attacks October voting

• By PENNY BROWN ROBERTS
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jan 4, 2006

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Julia Love hopes a federal judge will consider her birthday when scheduling Louisiana's next congressional elections.

The 17-year-old St. Joseph's Academy junior is in the midst of a battle over when voters will step behind the blue curtains to pick their U.S. senators and representatives.

Her father, Baton Rouge lawyer G. Scott Love, is suing Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Secretary of State Al Ater on her behalf, saying their efforts to bump back Louisiana's primaries to October will deny Julia her constitutional right to vote this year.

Voting currently is set for Nov. 7; Blanco and Ater have asked a Baton Rouge federal judge to allow the state to hold those elections Oct. 7. Julia's birthday is Oct. 10.

U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola might sort it all out at a Jan. 23 hearing.

"This is going to be my first election to vote in, and if someone gets the majority vote in the primaries, I'll be deprived of my vote," Julia said Tuesday. "I've always had an interest in politics, and I want my voice to be heard. I deserve that right."

At issue is a decade-old case challenging the open primary system. In November, Blanco and Ater filed a motion asking Polozola to change a 1998 ruling based on a law the Legislature passed this past summer.

Polozola previously ordered the state to hold elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November, and -- if needed -- a December runoff. That was intended to ensure Louisiana didn't elect its U.S. senators and representatives before federal Election Day if a candidate won outright.

Blanco and Ater are making their request based on a state law that took effect in August. That measure states that candidates who win outright in October won't be "declared elected" until federal election day in November.

G. Scott Love filed his complaint late last month on his daughter's behalf.

In it, lawyer Daniel Balhoff notes that Julia won't be able to vote in the primary election but will be eligible to do so on federal election day.

A candidate for U.S. Representative from the 6th Congressional District winning outright in October "will have the effect of denying Minor Plaintiff Julia Catherine Love the right to vote for U.S. Representative on Federal Election Day in 2006."

But even if there is a runoff, an October primary denies Julia her right to vote "because this so-called primary is in reality an 'election' within the meaning of the Federal Election Day Statutes, and such an election must be held on Federal Election Day."