Turnout Scant, But Enough For Scalise
by Stephanie Grace - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

In the 1st Congressional District, it's all over but the formality of a general election.

Assuming all goes according to expectations, that means the decisive event in one of the first tests of Louisiana's new three-stage congressional election was Saturday's poorly attended Republican runoff.

And that the prohibitive favorite to represent the 1st District's 433,000 or so registered voters in Congress earned the honor by winning all of 19,337 votes, to rival Tim Burns' 13,958.

Think about that for a moment. Those numbers are paltry by any measure, but particularly lined up against the totals from previous elections.

In the 2006 primary, now-Gov. Bobby Jindal drew over 130,500 votes, even though his race, unlike this year's Republican primary, wasn't hotly contested. When Jindal was first elected, on a ballot that also included an open U.S. Senate seat and presidential race to attract voters, Jindal got almost 226,000 votes.

One difference is that this was a special election, held outside the usual fall cycle. But even then, there's a history of greater participation. When David Vitter beat Dave Treen in a 1999 Memorial Day weekend runoff, more than 120,000 First District voters turned out.