<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: ‘Lucida Sans’;" class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Why do we have so many single-issue elections? Wouldn’t it make more sense to wait and put them all on the same ballot?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">State law sets four election dates — “far fewer than our state used to have just a decade ago,” said Meg Casper, spokeswoman for the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“Other than statewide or federal elections, what is placed on the ballot and when is a function of the local governing authorities including city councils, police juries, school boards, etc.,” Casper wrote in an email.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“Those bodies are, by law, in charge of picking an election date.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Local officials choose one date over others based mostly on timing — for example, picking the next one on the calendar or choosing one that coincides with the end of an up-for-renewal proposition. State officials have said that each election costs over $1,200 per precinct.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">This year’s election dates: March 5, presidential primary and municipal primary; April 9, municipal general and special primary; May 14, special general; Nov. 8, open primary and presidential and congressional; and Dec. 10, open general and congressional.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">The 2017 election dates are March 25, April 29, Oct. 14 and Nov. 18.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Lawmakers last year passed a measure to reduce the number of elections held in Louisiana, repealing a provision that allowed local officials to call for bond, tax or proposition elections to be held on days other than the Saturdays set aside by the state.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Additionally, state law prohibits officials from designating election dates that fall within specific religious holy periods or too near a federal holiday.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“No election of any kind shall be held in this state on any of the days of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, Simchat Torah, the first two days and the last two days of Passover, Shavuot, Tish’a B’Av, the two days preceding Labor Day or the three days preceding Easter,” reads the statute.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“If the date of any election falls on any of the above-named days, the election shall be held on the same weekday of the preceding week.”</span>

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<span style="font-weight: bold;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Online:</span> <span class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">www.sos.la.gov; www.legis.la.gov.</span>

<span class="R~sep~AHeadBrief">Event center floor designed to move</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: ‘Lucida Sans’;" class="R~sep~ACopyBody">I have attended several concerts at the Golden Nugget. This is a beautiful, second-floor venue. I have noticed when the crowds stomp their feet during a performance, the floor moves.</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: ‘Lucida Sans’;" class="R~sep~ACopyBody">This is something others have noticed. Is this normal for a floor to move under several thousand people?</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“The structural design of the second floor of our Grand Event Center at Golden Nugget Lake Charles was designed to move the way you have noted,” Jeff Cantwell, Landry’s Inc. senior vice president of development, said in a statement forwarded to The Informer.</span>

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<span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">The I</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">nform</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">er answers questions from rea</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">ders each Sunday, Monday a</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">nd Wednesday. It is re</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">searched and written by</span> <span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">Andrew Perzo</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">, an</span> <span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">American Press</span> <span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">staff wri</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">ter. To ask a question, call</span> <span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">494-409</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">8 and leave voice mail, or ema</span><span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="R~sep~ACopyEditors~sep~endnote">il informer@americanpress.com.</span>