House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales, standing at the right, looks over the House chamber after speaking with staff at his desk on the last day of the legislative session, Thursday, June 10, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La.
The Louisiana State Senate is shown on a TV at a House lawmaker’s desk on the last day of the legislative session, Thursday, June 10, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana’s legislative session saw lawmakers engage in many of the same cultural clashes as their counterparts in other states and several of their own unique disputes, but with some surprising outcomes.
The majority-Republican House and Senate didn’t follow other GOP-led states in enacting broad new restrictions on voting rights or on teaching about race and racism. Meanwhile, local scandals involving Louisiana State University and the Louisiana State Police didn’t drive discussions as much as expected in the nine-week session, and neither entity suffered severe consequences.
Once again, the Louisiana Legislature bucked some expected trends.
While Republicans in other states pushed bills to limit voter access to the polls, Louisiana’s Legislature largely avoided those contentious debates. Instead, lawmakers agreed to add four days to Louisiana’s early voting period for presidential elections.
They did have heated debates, however, over how Louisiana should handle replacing its 10,000 voting machines, many of which are decades old. In those discussions, some Republicans repeated baseless allegations of widespread fraud in other states during the 2020 presidential election that former President Donald Trump lost.
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