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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
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T h u r s d ay, J u n e 5, 2025
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2025 LEGISLATURE
Lawmakers OK purchase of new voting system
House passes one St. George school bill Second measure on constitutional amendment still awaiting action
BY CHARLES LUSSIER Staff writer
But the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana says forgoing a public bidding process could lead to less transparency. “We just want to make sure that there will be something available for the public to see at the end of this process to understand why the Secretary of State’s Office chose the vendor that it chose,” said PAR Research Director Melinda Deslatte. “We’re not entirely certain yet if that information will be publicly available,” she added. “But we’re hopeful because the Secretary of State’s Office has indicated that they expect this to be a transparent process.” The full Senate on Monday passed the measure on a 37-1 vote after the House earlier this month approved it without a single objection. The legislation now
One of the two bills that would create a school district to match the city of St. George cleared the Louisiana House on Wednesday after the authors addressed concerns of a key Baton Rouge lawmaker, particularly over legacy costs associated with the breakaway. Other Baton Rouge lawmakers, however, still oppose the proposed new school district, objecting to ongoing cross-district enrollment between St. George and the East Baton Rouge Parish school system, as well as the racial impact of the way the lines for the new city were drawn. The House voted 61-24 in favor of Senate Bill 234, the St. George school enabling legislation; it needed a simple majority to pass. Twenty state representatives were absent. That bill now returns to the state Senate for concurrence in House amendments. A second St. George school bill, Senate Bill 25, a proposed constitutional amendment, awaits action on the House floor. It requires a two-thirds majority to pass. That’s 70 votes if all members of the House are present. If it clears the House, it too will have to return to the Senate for a final vote. The legislative session ends June 12. If both bills pass the Legislature, the final decision on whether St. George gets its own school district would rest with the voters of Louisiana. A statewide referendum is planned for April 18, 2026 — there’s a chance it gets pushed back to November 2026. The proposed constitutional amendment needs to pass statewide as well as in the entirety of East Baton Rouge Parish. If successful, the new school district would begin operating in July 2027. It would be the fifth public school district in East Baton Rouge Parish, following the lead of Baker,
ä See VOTING, page 4A
ä See ST. GEORGE, page 4A
Louisiana could be on track to replace more than 10,000 voting machines that are 35 years old.
STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
New bidding process approved for Secretary of State’s Office BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer
Louisiana may finally be on track to replace its decades-old voting machines, after years of controversies over how to do so. The Louisiana Legislature gave the Secretary of State’s Office the green light to use a new bidding process to pick a company that will replace the more than 10,000 machines that officials say are increasingly difficult to keep functioning. “Our machines are 35 years old, it’s impossible to find parts, and they don’t produce an auditable paper record for each vote cast,” Secretary of State Nancy Landry told lawmakers on the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee last month. “To put it bluntly, we’re in a dire situation, and we need a new voting system
“Our machines are 35 years old, it’s impossible to find parts, and they don’t produce an auditable paper record for each vote cast. To put it bluntly, we’re in a dire situation, and we need a new voting system soon.” NANCy LANDRy, Louisiana secretary of state soon,” she said. Under House Bill 577, the office, which runs elections, will be authorized to purchase a new voting system using a bidding process called “invitation to negotiate” rather than a standard public bid process for state contracts. The new process will hopefully allow the state to speed up how quickly it purchases a new voting system, Landry said.
Weather service is filling jobs
La. Republicans still support spending bill Musk’s opposition prompts some in GOP to backtrack
Move comes after Trump cut budget
BY MARK BALLARD
BY KASEY BUBNASH
Staff writer
Staff writer
After losing hundreds of employees to budget cuts and layoffs implemented by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, the National Weather Service announced plans Tuesday to hire 126 workers to permanent positions while transferring existing employees to
ä See WEATHER, page 4A
WEATHER HIGH 92 LOW 74 PAGE 6B
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, makes a point as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Benton, listens during a news conference on President Donald Trump’s bill of tax breaks and spending cuts at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON — Louisiana Republicans rallied around House leadership Wednesday as some Republicans said they regretted their vote on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and Elon Musk called for throwing out GOP representatives for those votes. Musk, who ended his role over the weekend as President Donald Trump’s point man to
Business ......................6A Commentary ................5B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................6D Deaths .........................2B Opinion ........................4B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-5D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
ä Congressional Budget Office says tax bill will add $2.4 trillion to the deficit.
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shrink the federal government, said the bill would add to the nation’s $36.2 trillion debt. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk posted Tuesday on X, the social media app he owns. On Wednesday, Musk doubled down, writing on X: “Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is
ä See SPENDING, page 4A
100TH yEAR, NO. 340