What’s next for the Opelousas police chief?

Renee Allen
·2 min read

OPELOUSAS, La. (KLFY) — There are residents in Opelousas who seem to believe there are two options, will the chief of police resign, or will there be a recall election?

What’s required to begin the recall petition process?

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According to the Louisiana Secretary of State’s website, recall petitions must have a certain percentage of the eligible voters from the voting area of the elected official.  All signatures on recall petitions must be handwritten. St. Landry Parish Clerk of Court Charles Jagneaux spoke with News 10 about what the process would look like.

“Someone has to register, and submit a picture of identification to the secretary of state when they fill out the recall form,” Jagneaux explained.

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“For the city, it will be thirty three and a third of the registered voters which comes out to 3,694 registered voters who would have to sign the petition. So you have to get almost 4,000 signatures to call for a recall,” Jagneaux added.

After being certified by the registrar, the completed petition is sent to the governor to proclaim the petition qualified and publish notice for a recall election to be held.

“A sufficient number of signatures on the petition will ask the governor to call for a recall election.  They vote on whether or not to have a recall election.  If the voters vote 50% recall election, then they’ll have that,” Jagneaux said.

According to the secretary of state’s website, “the petition is then forwarded to the governor. The governor issues an election proclamation within 15 days after they receive the certified petition from the Registrar of Voters Office if the required number of qualified electors of the voting area signed the recall petition.”

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