During the recent state party elections, many were shocked by the actions of some members of the Federalist party. As soon as the elections were over, we got a tip that Sabine citizens were silencing their opponents. Not too long after, a few of Pearl’s members came out and said the same thing happened to them.
PPCs from these two parishes encouraged their own parish to vote for candidates within their parish, which is completely within their rights. The issue was that they had also submitted votes for other candidates outside their own parish as “abstentions,” leading to an outcry from their citizens. A source from Cane Parish denied any claims of this happening in their own parish and renounced such practices. They claimed this without specifying any offenders. Members of both Bogafalaya and Atchafalaya also believe that this is wrong and made claims about the PPCs of the other parishes. Many PPCs included the absence of press members and other citizens as an extra vote for the local consensus. Xander Arceneaux stated, “They added votes for people who went to the bathroom who weren’t there, so they couldn’t have abstained for them; they voted for them.” This is when citizens began to become concerned about their voice not just in Sabine and Pearl but also in all the parishes.
Word of mouth spread rapidly. Claims include the following: A member from Bogafalaya stated that their “votes from certain parishes just were like cut off completely.” Shortly after, a Sabine citizen expressed their frustration, explaining that “after that first runoff and when they made us all vote for the same person, I was like, I’m not doing this anymore.” To defend their own parish from these allegations, the PPC for Mississippi explained that whoever was missing at the time “chose to abstain, and I respected that, and I called it as an abstention every time.” Franklin, the current Federalist governor-elect from Mississippi, supported this statement, saying, “I’m not going to force the man to change if he doesn’t want to.” These claims have been made by all parishes, not just Sabine and Pearl. There have also been reports from Cane and even Atchafalaya stating that votes were overlooked or forgotten.
Citizens are human, meaning we make mistakes easily. This also happens in real governments. It is up to our communities to pay attention to courts, hearings, news, and more so we can choose the best person to represent us. With this, we should also advise, help, and voice our concerns to the ones we elect so incidents like this don’t happen. We are one community.