BATON ROUGE - On top of a national election this fall, parishes across Louisiana will cast their ballots for local candidates.

Early voting started Friday, and at registrar offices, signs are set up and voters are lining up. Amy Dubouis is a voter in Iberville Parish, and she says early voting is just easier.

“I believe we should do our civic duty and vote, and I'm excited to cast my presidential vote especially,” Dubouis said. “It's super convenient. You can't just say 'Oh no, it's eight o'clock and it's too late for me to vote.' I prefer to come early just to get it out of the way.”

In the 2023 Gubernatorial election, some experts say Louisiana had the lowest voter turnout in a dozen years, with 35% of voters turning out to cast a ballot on Oct. 14, the same day as LSU's home matchup with Auburn.

Whether previous years’ numbers are an indicator of a low turnout this year, political analyst James Hartman says is unlikely. Not only do national elections tend to pull out more voters, but he says the numbers in Louisiana might be going up this year compared to previous years.

“What’s interesting this fall is to see the incredible surges on the first day. I saw in Jefferson Parish, for example, they more than doubled their first-day early voters from four years ago. In St. In Tammany, it was up 33% from four years ago,” Hartman said.

Hartman, who’s tracked Louisiana elections for years, says while early voting is helpful in predicting outcomes, it isn’t an exact indicator of who will take the seat.

"I don't tell people how to vote, but I do encourage them to vote, and early voting makes that possible," Hartman said. “It is impossible to extrapolate from one day of a very lengthy early voting process, but those are very interesting trends that people are very motivated in this cycle, and I don’t see that being very likely to change.”