Early voting ends in Shreveport; political analyst says turnout could be indication of who will win runoff

SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) - Early voting wrapped up Saturday, Nov. 3, so now it’s up to Shreveport voters to decide who their next mayor will be: Greg Tarver or Tom Arceneaux.

More than 9,000 people in Caddo Parish voted early for the December runoff. More than half of the early voters were Democrats, 30% were Republican, and 12% made up other parties.

“Those numbers tend to favor Greg Tarver and not Tom Arceneaux. It could turn around completely on Election Day,” said Jeffrey Sadow, a political science professor at LSUS.

“I feel confident. I think it depends on the turnout. I think whoever’s people turnout on Saturday, and whoever’s people turned out for early voting, I think that’s likely who’s going to win the election,” Tom Arceneaux, Republican candidate, stated.

The early voting results came just days after Tarver claimed Arceneaux had a hand in creating negative campaign ads to attack him and his family.

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Tarver says opponent ‘sanctioned’ negative campaign ads; Arceneaux says claim ‘simply isn’t accurate’

On Friday, Dec. 2, Shreveport mayoral candidate Tom Arceneaux released a statement asking for the removal of negative ads against his opponent, Senator Greg Tarver.

“Tom’s effort to play the innocent bystander is merely a misdirection attempt from the truth. Tom knew about and sanctioned these nefarious efforts to attack my wife, my family, and myself,” Tarver said in a statement.

Arceneaux refuted claims made against him by his opponent.

“We issued a statement on Friday asking for [the ads] to be taken down because we don’t have any direct or indirect communication with the Watchdog PAC, so I have no control or coordination with Watchdog PAC. We were unsuccessful in trying to make a connection. As a result, we issued the statement requesting the ads be taken down,” said Arceneaux.

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