The Lens has examined and mapped turnout by precinct in this weekend’s elections, as well as the margin of victory in five contests.
The first map shows the unofficial turnout for each precinct. The map can be zoomed and moved. If you hover over a precinct, you’ll get the percentage turnout there. We calculated that figure by averaging the vote totals for citywide races.
The highest turnout was about 44 percent.
Turnout by precinct
We showed our results to Edward Chervenak, a political science professor at the University of New Orleans.
A few things stand out:
Turnout was low in Uptown precincts near the Irish Channel St. Patrick’s Day parade, which blocked Magazine Street and St. Charles Avenue on Election Day. A number of precincts along the parade route saw votership reduced by more than half from the Feb. 1 primary election. In two 2nd Ward precincts along the route — precincts 2 and 3 — turnout was below 10 percent.
Turnout was heavier in City Council District C — made up of the French Quarter, Marigny, the West Bank and portions of the 7th Ward and Treme. That’s where Jackie Clarkson and Nadine Ramsey were competing in a runoff, likely driving the higher turnout.
Turnout was also high in City Council District D, made up of areas from Gentilly to Lake Pontchartrain. Chervenak noted that Sheriff Marlin Gusman was once the council member for that district. He said some of the higher turnout there could have stemmed from support for Gusman.
Chervenak pointed out that in Districts C and D, term-limited council members Clarkson and Cynthia Hedge-Morrell tried to move to new seats — Clarkson from at-large to C, and Hedge-Morrell from D to at-large. Chervenak attributed higher turnout to a “level of discontent” against Clarkson and Hedge-Morrell. “In Districts C and D the voters showed up and wanted some new faces on the City Council,” he said.
Chervenak said the Lower 9th Ward and Central City followed their historical trend of relatively low turnout for municipal elections.
Every candidate won his or her own precinct except Hedge-Morrell and Ramsey.
Margin of victory
This map shows the margin of victory for each candidate in each precinct. Click on the race at the top of the map to toggle between contests.
Margin of victory was determined by the difference between the percentage of votes for each candidate. For example if one candidate got 65 percent of the vote in one precinct and the other got 35 percent, the map would show 30 percentage-point margin of victory for the first candidate.
A few highlights:
Jason Williams enjoyed support across the city in his race against Hedge-Morrell. He won all but 8 of 366 precincts. “Williams crushed her citywide,” Chevernak said.
In the Council District C race, Clarkson gathered support in Algiers Point, Marigny and the French Quarter, while Nadine Ramsey won Treme, the 7th Ward and most of Algiers. “They love her [Clarkson] in the French Quarter,” said Chevernak. Clarkson lost in 27 of 40 West Bank precincts. Both Clarkson and Ramsey are West Bank residents.
In the coroner’s race, precincts were polarized. Most went strongly for Jeffrey Rouse or strongly for Dwight McKenna. Rouse showed strong support in what Tulane geographer Richard Campanella has called the “white teapot” — “a relatively wealthy and well-educated majority-white area shaped like a kettle.” In our map of the coroner’s race, the teapot is green — indicating strong support for Rouse.
Chervenak pointed out that precincts in Lakeview and along St. Charles Avenue preferred Foti to Gusman.
Staff writer Charles Maldonado contributed to this report.
