[StBernard] First voter purge since Katrina gears up in St. Bernard Parish

[Westley Annis]

First voter purge since Katrina gears up in St. Bernard Parish
by Mary Elise DeCoursey, The Times-Picayune 
Monday June 02, 2008, 5:24 PM
Almost three years after Hurricane Katrina's destruction swept the residents
of St. Bernard Parish across the state and nation, Registrar of Voters Velma
Bourg is dusting -- or drying -- off the rolls for the first time, figuring
out which voters should be purged from the parish list. 

"We had so many people living elsewhere since the disaster, this is the
first time since the storm we've been able to do it," Bourg said Monday.

The result is a dizzying list of just over 5,500 names -- almost 13 percent
of the 43,000 registered voters pre-Katrina -- to be removed from the rolls.
Unless people come forward to update their information, the names will be
purged Nov. 4, Bourg said. 

The registrar's office began sending out canvassing cards in early January,
Bourg said. In addition, anyone who has missed the past two federal
elections is automatically listed as an inactive voter. Once the return of
the cards trickled to a halt in early May, Bourg ended the canvass and
compiled the list. 

Normally this process would be done every year, and the list would be much
shorter.

"We didn't have anything near this," Bourg said. "(Before Katrina) we would
just have a couple hundred at most." 

The purge does not affect the location of St. Bernard's polling stations.
The stations have already been consolidated due to a lack of available
buildings and will remain the same for the November presidential election,
Bourg said. But she is hopeful the polling stations will become more
convenient in the next year as more buildings come back on line. 

The complete list is available as a PDF on the St. Bernard Parish government
website at www.sbpg.net.