District officials are trying to locate New Orleans residents displaced to the Washington area by Hurricane Katrina to help them fill out absentee ballots for the upcoming mayoral and City Council elections in their home city.
No one in the region, however, appears to know exactly how many families are still living in the area.
Cameron Ballantyne, spokesman for the D.C. Chapter of the Red Cross, said the organization turned over all of its lists to local governments last fall.
Deborah Daniels, spokeswoman for the D.C. Department of Human Services, said most families have found housing and are no longer on the city’s assistance rolls.
U.S. Election Assistance Commission Chairman Paul DeGregorio, who is traveling to New Orleans later this week, said city officials have already received “tens of thousands” of absentee applications.
“They’re scattered all over [the] country, but preliminary results show they still care about the future of their city,” DeGregorio said.
Bill O’Field, spokesman for the D.C. election office, said evacuees can fill out paper work and fax their documents attheir customer service center.
Voters who cast absentee ballots in the election will be reaffirming their status as Louisiana residents and will owe state income tax if they earned money, even if they were living out of state at the time, officials said.
Where to Get Absentee Ballots
» D.C. Board of Elections & Ethics: One Judiciary Square, 441 Fourth St. NW, Room 250 North
» U.S. Election Assistance Commission: 1225 New York Ave. NW, Suite 1100
» To vote by absentee ballot, residents must request an absentee ballot from the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office by April 18 for the primary election and May 16 for the general election.
» Only voters who were registered before Sept. 24, 2005, can request an absentee ballot, officials said.
