Some Displaced Voters Have Say, But Legal Fight Expected for Those Who Didn’t
NEW ORLEANS
Their journey began at the church where the Rev. Martin Luther King once preached, and it ended at polling places in the shattered city where they once lived.
For four busloads of displaced New Orleans residents, their eight-hour ride from Atlanta was the ultimate _expression of their civil rights — to have a say in how their city is going to be rebuilt after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
“That’s the purpose for coming down here, not to be left out of what’s happening in the city,” says Wellington Lain, 41, who says he has missed only one election since he was old enough to vote. “It makes me feel as if I still belong.”
Mayor Ray Nagin finished ahead of 21 challengers but will face his closest competitor, Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, in a May 20 runoff because no one received more than 50 percent of the vote.
The election was a tricky experiment of modern-day democracy that gave voters scattered by the hurricane a say in this city’s future. Despite the high stakes — the municipal leadership will make key decisions about where and what to rebuild in a city where whole neighborhoods remain uninhabitable — turnout was low, roughly a third of those eligible. Turnout is typically about 40 percent to 45 percent.
