If Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin needed another indication about the politically dicey nature of his work to replace Louisiana’s voting machines, he received a bracing and loud reminder during his luncheon speech to a group of Republican women.
The women assembled at the East Baton Rouge Parish Republican Women event interrupted his remarks, yelled questions, chastised his responses and accused the Republican elections chief of dodging their concerns. One woman shouted at him from a table, then moved closer to challenge him more directly, saying: “You work for us, and we are unhappy.”
And those are people within Ardoin’s own party.
“I hear you,” Ardoin repeatedly tried to tell the women.
But it’s already clear Ardoin won’t be able to calm all the concerns. A dissatisfied leader of the Senate elections oversight committee on Thursday pointedly urged Ardoin to shelve the bid process and redo it later.
The secretary of state’s effort to replace 10,000 Election Day and early voting machines with newer, updated technology comes amid intense national scrutiny about the way people vote and the way elections officials tally those ballots.
Despite dozens of court rulings upholding the presidential election results, supporters of Donald Trump continue to assert baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud in states the former president lost in November.
They have targeted the current voting technology firm Louisiana uses, Dominion Voting Systems, for the unfounded claims. Some Republicans want to bar the company from being allowed to win another state contract—at odds with the public bid process.
Meanwhile, at least one company bidding for the work is complaining the bid process is skewed.
Discontent with Ardoin’s handling of the voting machine replacement work so far already has the chair of the Senate’s elections oversight committee, Sen. Sharon Hewitt, asking Ardoin to cancel the search, get more outside input and restart a new bid solicitation later.
The search for new voting machines is already a redo after a 2018 replacement effort started by Ardoin’s predecessor ended with the contract award for Dominion scuttled amid allegations of bias and impropriety.
Read the full story about the political minefield from the Associated Press.
