BATON ROUGE — A law went into effect August 1 that sets guidelines for voter registration drives.

Act 701 requires those wishing to conduct voter registration drives to fill out a contact form in person with either the Secretary of State's Office or their parish Registrar of Voters.

There is also an option to register your drive by emailing outreach@sos.la.gov.

Those who are conducting an electronic drives will not have to register if they are registering voters through the Secretary of State's voter portal at geauxvote.com.

M. Christian Green, president of League of Women's Voters of Louisiana, said that her organization was going by these guidelines before it became a law. She said she fears this law may hinder some organizations.

“Many organizations will decide, 'Hey ,this is the year to go online and do everything online,' but if you're in a rural area that may not have good WiFi or broadband internet access, that can be a problem. If you’re doing an outdoor registration, once again, you have to have WiFi, you have to have battery access for your devices,” said Christian Green.

Violators of the law can be fined up to $2,000 or imprisoned.

Green said she believes this may affect voter turnout.

"Knowing that there is a law out there that if you are in violation you can suffer a criminal penalty that will deter people from doing it," said Green. "Some people and groups might not want to take the risk or do not want to bother with this. So there is inherently voter suppressive or voter registration suppressive right there."

Organizations are required to submit registration applications to their parish Registrar of Voters within 30 days of completion of the registration applications, or no later than the close of registration for the next election, whichever occurs first,

The deadline to register to vote in the November elections is October 7th.