Become part of the movement for unbiased, accessible election information. Donate today.
LaToya Cantrell recall, New Orleans, Louisiana (2022-2023)
| LaToya Cantrell recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
| Recall status |
| Signature requirement |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2023 Recalls in Louisiana Louisiana recall laws Mayoral recalls Recall reports |
An effort in New Orleans, Louisiana, to recall Mayor LaToya Cantrell was initiated in August 2022. Recall organizers failed to submit enough valid signatures to put the recall election on the ballot.[1]
Cantrell was first elected as mayor of New Orleans on November 18, 2017. She was re-elected on November 13, 2021, winning outright in the primary with 64.7% of the vote.
Recall supporters
The recall effort was initiated by New Orleans residents Eileen Carter and Belden Batiste. Petitions listed Cantrell's "failure to put New Orleans first and execute responsibilities of the position" as the reason for a recall.[2]
In an interview with Fox News, Carter said that there had been an increase in crime rates, deteriorating infrastructure, and a lack of interaction between Cantrell and city officials.[3] On the recall's official website, there were 38 listed reasons for why Cantrell should have been recalled.[4]
| “ |
|
” |
Recall opponents
Cantrell responded to the recall effort during an interview with WGNO. She said, "I’ve chosen to do the hard things. That doesn’t mean that comes without the ability to please everyone. I cannot do that. I strive to but I cannot but I choose to do the hard things. I continue to make history around here."[6]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Louisiana
The number of valid signatures required to force a recall election is 20% of eligible voters in the district. Completed petitions must be submitted within 180 days of being filed with the Louisiana Secretary of State. Once signatures are handed in, the registrar of voters has 20 working days to certify the recall petition.
If enough signatures are certified by the registrar of voters, the petition is forwarded to the governor who has 15 days to issue an election proclamation.
Changes to signature requirement
There were 266,714 registered voters in Orleans Parish as of August 1, 2022. Petitions were filed on August 26, 2022, and the signature requirement was reported to be 53,353 when organizers began gathering signatures.[7][2] The number of required signatures was adjusted to 49,975 after a recalculation of registered voters in the parish.[8][9]
Recall organizers filed a lawsuit on February 16, 2023, arguing that 30,000 voters moved out of the parish and should have been removed from the voter rolls.[10][9] On March 1, 2023, Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin announced a consent judgment that revised the number of registered voters in the parish to 224,876 for the purpose of the recall effort.[11] The agreement reduced the signature requirement to 44,975.[8][12] A consultant working for Cantrell stated that all available legal options would be explored in response to Ardoin's announcement.[13]
Carter said that more than 49,000 signatures were submitted by the deadline on February 22, 2023.[14] Orleans Parish Registrar of Voters Sandra Wilson had until March 22, 2023, to verify the signatures.[15] On March 21, 2023, Governor John Bel Edwards (D) announced that 27,243 signatures had been found valid. Of the 34,625 signatures that were submitted, 7,411 were rejected.[1]
Lawsuit filed by Cantrell
On March 14, 2023, Cantrell filed a lawsuit with the Orleans Parish Civil District Court to challenge the consent judgment that was agreed upon by Ardoin and the organizers of the recall effort. Attorneys for Cantrell argued that Ardoin lacked the authority to retroactively lower the signature threshold for a recall petition that had already been submitted.[16] The lawsuit also stated that Orleans Parish Civil District Court Judge Jennifer Medley, who approved the consent judgment, had a vested interest in the outcome of the litigation, based on reports that Medley was a signatory to the recall petition.[17][18]
Cantrell also filed a petition with the 19th Judicial District Court for East Baton Rouge Parish seeking a Writ of Mandamus against Ardoin.[16] If approved, that court order would have directed Ardoin to show by what authority he negotiated the consent judgment.[19]
Election history
2021
See also: Mayoral election in New Orleans, Louisiana (2021)
Louisiana elections use the majority-vote system. All candidates compete in the same primary, and a candidate can win the election outright by receiving more than 50 percent of the vote. If no candidate does, the top two vote recipients from the primary advance to the general election, regardless of their partisan affiliation.
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Mayor of New Orleans
The following candidates ran in the primary for Mayor of New Orleans on November 13, 2021.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | LaToya Cantrell (D) | 64.7 | 48,750 |
 | Vina Nguyen (R) | 13.5 | 10,133 | |
 | Leilani Heno (No party preference)  | 8.8 | 6,605 | |
 | Belden Batiste (D) | 5.1 | 3,863 | |
 | Joseph Amato (Independent) | 1.7 | 1,256 | |
 | Eldon Anderson (D) | 1.3 | 987 | |
| Byron Cole (No party preference) | 1.2 | 919 | ||
 | Luke Fontana (D) | 1.0 | 720 | |
 | Manny Chevrolet Bruno (No party preference) | 0.8 | 578 | |
 | Johnese Smith (D) | 0.7 | 553 | |
 | Matthew Hill (Independent) | 0.7 | 535 | |
 | Nathaniel Jones (Independent) | 0.3 | 231 | |
 | Douglas Bentley I (Independent) | 0.2 | 163 | |
| Reginald Merchant (No party preference) | 0.0 | 32 | ||
| Total votes: 75,325 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
See also
- Recall campaigns in Louisiana
- Political recall efforts, 2023
- Political recall efforts, 2022
- Mayoral recalls
External links
- Search Google News for this topic
- Government website of New Orleans, Louisiana
- Recall campaign website
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 4WWL, "Cantrell recall falls short by thousands of signatures, Governor says," March 21, 2023
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Fox 8, "An official petition to recall Mayor LaToya Cantrell has been filed," August 26, 2022
- ↑ Fox News, "New Orleans recall organizers say they have the support to oust mayor of this murder capital," February 26, 2023
- ↑ No LaToya Recall, "LaToya's List," accessed March 6, 2023
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ WGNO, "EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: One-on-one with LaToya Cantrell amid recall effort," September 13, 2022
- ↑ 4WWL, "Recall petition filed against New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell," August 26, 2022
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 ABC News, "Agreement: Fewer names needed for New Orleans mayor recall," March 1, 2023
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 WVUE, "ZURIK: Fewer signatures needed to recall New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell," February 3, 2023
- ↑ 4WWL, "NOLATOYA group files suit asking for 30,000 names on voting rolls to be checked," February 16, 2023
- ↑ Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, "SECRETARY OF STATE KYLE ARDOIN ANNOUNCES ORLEANS PARISH CONSENT JUDGMENT," March 1, 2023
- ↑ WDSU, "Recall total voter threshold now 25,000 people lower than it was," March 1, 2023
- ↑ WDSU, "New Orleans mayor 'exploring all options' after recall agreement reached over voter rolls," March 2, 2023
- ↑ 4WWL, "Group says it has enough signatures for LaToya Cantrell recall vote," February 20, 23
- ↑ Daily Advertiser, "In New Orleans, residents await result of petition to recall Mayor LaToya Cantrell," February 27, 2023
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 LaToya Cantrell, "Twin Lawsuits Challenge Republican Secretary of State R. Kyle Ardoin’s Unconstitutional Intervention in Orleans Parish Recall Election," March 14, 2023
- ↑ Orleans Parish Civil District Court, "Cantrell v. Ardoin, No. 2023-02177," March 14, 2023
- ↑ NOLA, "Judge who OK'd lowering bar on LaToya Cantrell recall signed the petition, didn't disclose it," March 8, 2023
- ↑ Louisiana 19th Judicial District Court, "Cantrell v. Ardoin," March 14, 2023
