ZURIK: Fewer signatures needed to recall New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Sources tell FOX 8 the number of signatures needed to recall Mayor LaToya Cantrell is fewer than previously thought.

FOX 8 has confirmed the numbers through several sources and through a document received from the Secretary of State’s office.

The document received through a public records request shows the number of eligible voters in Orleans Parish. The properties of the Orleans recall data document show it was created on Aug. 26, 2022. It shows there are 249,876 active and eligible voters in Orleans Parish.

State law says recall petitioners need 20% of those voters to recall the mayor. That means recall organizers would actually need 49,975.2 active and eligible voters to sign the petition in order to recall Cantrell. That’s 3,368 fewer voters than previously reported.

Records from the Secretary of State show there are 266,714 eligible voters in Orleans Parish. However, about 17,000 of those voters are inactive, meaning they haven’t updated their address and haven’t voted in as many as 10 years. Sources tell FOX 8, because of that, state law doesn’t count them toward the total number of active voters.

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Recall organizers recently announced they needed 15,000 additional signatures. With the updated numbers, that could mean they now actually need about 11,600 more signatures.

FOX 8 reached out to the Secretary of State’s office and they referred us to the Orleans recall data document we received. FOX 8 also contacted the Registrar of Voters office and the registrar confirmed the number of eligible voters at the time the petition was filed was 249,876. The registrar confirms petitioners need 20% of that number for the recall.

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