“First Came the Floods; Then Came the Polling Place Changes”

CPI:

Twenty-six percent of Black voters in East Baton Rouge Parish had their polling place changed between the 2012 and 2016 general elections, compared with 15% of white voters in the parish, according to a new analysis of polling place movement by the Center for Public Integrity and Stateline.

The changes to East Baton Rouge Parish’s polling places in the wake of the 2016 floods added confusion for voters already preoccupied with reconstructing their lives in the wake of the disaster. Many advocates say recovery was slower in the parish’s majority-Black neighborhoods, where residents already struggled with systemic inequities before the storm.

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