Independent Party comes to end in Louisiana on Aug. 1

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More than 150,000 voters will be affected when Louisiana officially ends recognition of the Independent Party this Friday. It’s all part of the state’s move to a closed party primary system for its congressional seats and certain state-level elected offices.

According to data from the Secretary of State, 150,654 voters registered as “Independent” will have their status changed to “No Party,” a designation currently given to 657,966. Affected voters will receive notice in the mail, including an updated voter information card. 

The legislature approved the change in Act 84 earlier this year. Louisiana did not allow the existence of an official Independent Party until 2015, after legislators chose the year before to end that prohibition in state law. 

Starting with next year’s elections, only party members and voters with “No Party” on their registration can vote in primaries for the U.S. Senate, U.S. House, Louisiana Supreme Court, Public Service Commission and Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

“Many Louisiana voters who are registered as Independents mistakenly believe they are unaffiliated with any political party, when in fact they are members of the Independent Party,” Secretary of State Nancy Landry said Monday in a news release. “This proactive change will allow voters formerly registered as Independents to participate in Closed Party Primaries next year, preventing voter confusion while maximizing participation.” 

Landry encourages voters to check their voter registration on the state’s GeauxVote online registration system or GeauxVote app.

In 2024, state lawmakers approved the switch to closed primaries from an open or “jungle” system, in which different party candidates faced one another. An open primary could result in two members of the same party meeting in a runoff if no candidate claimed 50% or more of the votes cast, while a closed primary all but guarantees each party will have a candidate in a runoff.

As of July 1, there were nearly 2.98 million registered voters in Louisiana, including more than 1.09 million Democrats and almost 1.05 million Republicans.