As revised New Orleans City Council district boundaries are set to take effect, miscommunication between local officials and lack of public voter education has left some residents unaware of which City Council candidates will be on their ballot this fall.
New district boundaries will go into effect in January 2026, based on an ordinance passed by City Council in 2022. However, voters who live in neighborhoods being redistricted will be casting a ballot in their new districts — not their current districts — in the October election.
The city and local election officials have done little to publicize the district map changes, and virtually nothing to educate residents about which council district candidates will appear on their ballots. A lack of clear communication between City Council, the Criminal Clerk’s Office and the Registrar of Voters over whether residents would be voting in their new or old districts led to multiple officials relaying incorrect information to Verite News.
In interviews with Verite last week, the clerk’s office — responsible for running local elections — and At-Large Councilmember JP Morrell both inaccurately stated that residents will vote in their old districts. Morrell, along with the other six members of City Council, co-sponsored and voted for the 2022 redistricting ordinance.
The Registrar’s Office, which is responsible for local voter registration and early and absentee voting, correctly relayed that ballots in the upcoming municipal election will reflect the new council boundaries.
Asked about publicizing the map changes, Morrell, who is running for reelection to his citywide council seat, at one point even said it should be left up to the new council that will be inaugurated in January.
Representatives from all three offices pointed to one another when asked who is ultimately responsible for voter education.
A representative from the Registrar’s Office, who declined to provide her name, told Verite that she cannot speak to why the Clerk’s Office might have had incorrect information. She also said that it would be their responsibility to provide voter education.
Jeanine Aubry, elections manager for the Clerk’s Office, said the opposite.
“We’re not the disseminator of that information, that would be a Registrar question, if I’m correct,” Aubry said. “Voter registration issues, we don’t keep those records, so that’s not something we’d be able to truly comment on.”
Another representative from the Clerk’s office said she had no idea why her office was unaware that redistricting would affect the election.
Meanwhile, many whose districts are changing may be in for a surprise when they enter the voting booths.
“No one that I know [at City Council] has gotten a piece of education or [had] a meeting about it,” District E Councilmember and mayoral candidate Oliver Thomas said, adding that he was unaware of what caused the communication issue. “I guess what we can say here is, what went wrong and how do you stop it from happening in the future?”
Current confusion about redistricting follows a tumultuous redistricting process in 2022, which started late and had to be rushed to final passage. Per the city charter, the council has six months after each published census to create new district boundaries or else the duty is given to an independent redistricting commission.
The 2020 Census was finalized in September 2021, meaning the council needed to complete its work by March 2022. The new council released draft district maps in February, about a month before the deadline, forcing a rushed public engagement process that many residents criticized as inadequate.
The largest impact of the redistricting will increase the size of District C, which currently includes Algiers, the French Quarter and Bywater, and was the smallest district as of the 2020 census.
Currently, Treme is split between District C and District D, but under the new council map, will fall entirely within District C. In addition, the Broadmoor neighborhood — now split between Districts A and B — will be entirely within District B.
Left in the dark
Several people who will be affected by redistricting said that they have received no communication from the city informing them of the change.
Brian Knighten runs two neighboring businesses on South Broad Street — The Broad Theater and The Broadside — that will be shifted from District D to District C.
While Knighten lives in District A, he says he interacts with District D Councilmember Eugene Green often because his businesses are located in Green’s district.
“I’m very much looking forward to it,” Knighten said, of the possibility that District C Councilmember Freddie King III will become his representative if reelected to office.
He said that he’s heard nothing from the city about redistricting.
“The only reason I knew about it is because I have some things I’m trying to do that need some City Council help and just [through] my own personal research,” Knighten said.
The New Orleans City Council website has a page that explains the process of redistricting and includes maps of the new district boundaries compared to the old ones. However, the site says the new maps are effective in January 2026, which is when elected candidates will take office, and make no mention of the fall election — only the ordinance mentions the election.
Diane Heying, who runs Cafe Lamara down Broad Street from The Broad Theater, had no idea that she would be switching districts. She and her husband live and work in a neighborhood that will switch from District D to District C.
Like Knighten, Heying and her husband received no communication from the City or from their City Councilmember. While she’s had positive interactions with Councilmember Green, she said she knows much less about Councilmember King.
Both Green and King are running for reelection, and neither responded to multiple requests for comment about redistricting.
“I don’t know anything about him other than seeing his signs,” Heying said, adding that she hopes the city publicizes the change. “Just for people to be aware that it’s going to be changing so the person they may expect to be voting for, now they need to pay attention to someone else.”
Voters can confirm what district they will be voting in by referring to the online map provided by City Council or viewing an up-to-date sample ballot through the Louisiana Secretary of State website.
Shifting blame on voter education
While voter education is not legally the responsibility of any city entity, representatives from varying branches have different ideas about who the burden should fall on.
Thomas said that he believes that responsibility of voter education falls onto the Registrar’s Office and the Criminal Clerk’s Office, though he also feels that all politicians should educate voters whenever possible.
“When you talk about voter engagement and education and registration … that’s the Clerk and the Registrar,” he said. “So why would a Councilmember lead those discussions or be involved in those discussions especially given it’s not their constitutional charter responsibility?”
Neither the Clerk’s Office and the Registrar have made any public notifications about redistricting, with representatives from both offices saying the other is responsible for voter education.
The Registrar hosted a Voter Education week at the end of August, with one of their goals being to encourage Orleans Parish organizations to use their office as “a resource for voter education purposes.”
Councilmember at-large JP Morrell initially also said that the election would not be impacted by redistricting. Based on that timeline, he said that it would be the responsibility of the new City Council to decide whether they wanted to publicize the change in January.
“I do think it would be worth consideration, doing a mailer explaining the district maps but that’s going to be largely determined by if we have the funding to do it, and if that’s a priority of the new council,” Morrell said, adding that sending out mailers can cost around $50,000 and noting the City’s current deficit.
Morrell did not provide an updated comment on whether the City Council should send out mailers after being informed that the change will affect the fall election.
The Mayor’s Office also did not respond to multiple requests for comment regarding the fall election and voter education. Other members of City Council were also unavailable to provide comment upon request.
While the City has not made any strides in informing voters, some neighborhood groups are considering how they can effectively communicate the change.
Interim Executive Director of the Broadmoor Improvement Association Natori Green wrote in an email to Verite that the neighborhood organization is evaluating how redistricting will impact residents.
“The Broadmoor Improvement Association is considering ways to publicize this change to residents, including community updates and through our community events and weekly canvassing to keep everyone informed,” Green wrote.
In Thomas’ view, it’s concerning that people might be unaware of which candidates they should be informed about before voting.
“It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t figure out whose responsibility it was,” Thomas said. “That doesn’t go a long way into inspiring voter confidence, and we can’t continue to make those mistakes in the future.”