Kyle Ardoin Squashes NOLA Voter Suppression Rumors

Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin says there's no truth to stories coming out of New Orleans that a number of polls will be close on election day because of power outages.

Crescent City Mayor LaToya Cantrell is saying that electrical service, knocked out during Hurricane Zeta, would be restored in time for election day.

Neworleanscitybusiness.com says, "Mayor LaToya Cantrell said as many as 11 precincts could still be without power. The Democratic mayor said that Louisiana’s Republican secretary of state, Kyle Ardoin, and his commissioner of elections, Sherri Wharton Hadskey, 'are refusing to provide support for generators' for those precincts."

But Ardoin says those accusations are all creations of the Mayor. "You can't (do anything) when politicians don't have their facts and they jump out there accusing others of nefarious things. I'll put my record of dealing with Laura and Zeta compared to the New Orleans mayor.

"I've had daily phone calls - sometimes multiple phone calls - with the affected parishes. We've been on top of this issue from the get-go. I've always said that there will be power at all polling places, whether it be generator power or grid power from the power companies."

And Ardoin emphasizes that of all the power outages caused by the hurricane, Orleans Parish is the only one with complaints. "Other parishes had no problems...just Orleans seems to be the one and I think that's failed leadership on the mayor's part."