Early voting was sluggish in advance of this weekend's runoff election, with fewer than 6 percent of Louisiana's 3 million registered voters casting ballots.
About 171,000 voters cast ballots early for the Saturday election that will decide an open U.S. Senate seat and two open U.S. House seats, along with dozens of local elections.
That's only a third of the people who early voted ahead of last month's primary election, which had the attention-grabbing presidential race on the ballot.
December elections historically have had low turnouts, and the Secretary of State's office expects about 35 percent of voters statewide to show up for the election, compared to 68 percent for the presidential election.
Early voting data showed white voters cast early ballots in greater proportions than black voters.