Effort to Recall Gov. John Bel Edwards Utterly Fails
Effort to Recall Gov. John Bel Edwards Utterly Fails
Less than 1% of registered voters in Louisiana signed the recall petition
An effort to remove Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards from office has failed to obtain the number of signatures needed, allowing Edwards to continue serving his second term.
According to the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office, all parishes but one have completed counting signatures on the petition seeking to recall Gov. Edwards, and only 26,679 signatures have been submitted. That’s less than 1% of the state’s registered voters. To be successful, the recall effort needed around 600,000 signatures - or 20% of voters.
The petition was filed on Aug. 29, 2020, by Lee Joseph Vidrine and Michael Vidrine of Eunice, LA. The petition accused Edwards of “impeding the constitutional freedoms and livelihoods of all Louisiana citizens without concrete scientific data,” in response to the statewide mask mandate and other coronavirus restrictions Edwards put in place.
Over the course of the pandemic, there have been 439,737 cases of COVID-19 in Louisiana, with 9,988 deaths. Gov. Edwards declared Sunday, March 14 - the one-year anniversary of Louisiana’s first coronavirus death - a day of prayer and remembrance for the thousands who have lost their lives.
“We have lost far too many mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and daughters and sons from all races, religions, and creeds,” said Gov. Edwards. “We owe it to all of them to protect ourselves and each other as best we can to continue to slow the spread of COVID and prevent even more deaths as we work to end this pandemic.
With Louisiana leading the way in the countrywide vaccine rollout, many have begun pushing for Edwards to follow the lead of states such as Texas and Mississippi, who recently eliminated COVID-19 restrictions. Earlier this month, 33 members of the Lousiana State Legislature sent an open letter calling on Gov. Edwards to lift restrictions.
“It’s time to lift statewide restrictions on the capacity of all businesses and facilities and lift the statewide mask mandate,” the legislators said. “Our businesses, both large and small, will continue to fight against COVID-19. We are certain that their continued commitment and direction as it relates to capacity issues and enforcement of other virus safety precautions will be done safely and professionally without any additional government mandates.”
On Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser promised to advise Edwards that it is time to open the state further for tourism businesses - especially outdoor events.
“In the next few weeks, I hope we can open it up,” Nungesser said. “We’re competing against wide-open states.” The Lt. Gov. mused that Louisiana stands to lose tourism dollars if it gives the impression it is not welcoming to visitors. A recent study shows that 57 percent of Americans plan to travel for spring break - on par with pre-pandemic travel numbers from 2019.
But health experts aren’t so eager.
“Let’s not declare victory yet, right?” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden. “You don’t want the decline that we’re seeing to plateau at an unreasonably high level. Right now, the level of daily infections is somewhere between 60,000 and 70,000 a day. That’s absolutely too high a level to be acceptable. I don’t want to be a downer on all of this. But you’ve got to continue to practice public health measures until the level of infection goes way, way down.”