By David Vitrano

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Voter turnout across the state was low and surprises were few for Saturday’s first party primaries for U.S. Congressional races in Louisiana.

With an estimated turnout of less than 10 percent, stormy weather and a general lack of interest were undoubtedly contributing factors to the lack of voters at the polls.

Three primaries were held Saturday in the race for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by David Vitter.

Vitter will get the chance to retain that post in November, as he beat out Chet Traylor and Nick Accardo for the Republican nomination.

Vitter garnered a whopping 88 percent of the vote compared to just 7 percent for Traylor and 5 percent for Accardo.

Vitter’s Democratic opponent in November will be Charlie Melancon, who vacated his Third Congressional District seat to run for Senate. Melancon won with 71 percent of the vote.

His opponents, Neeson J. Chauvin Jr. and Cary Deaton, garnered just 18 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

Although Vitter and Melancon have gotten most of the attention throughout the campaign, there was another primary held in the same race on Saturday. Libertarian candidates Anthony Gentile and Randall Todd Hayes faced off at the polls, and Hayes, after winning 62 percent of the vote, will appear on the ballot in November.

The other race on the ballot in the River Parishes Saturday was to find out who would be vying for the Third Congressional District seat formerly held by Melancon.

As there is only one Democrat in the race, Ravi Sangisetti, there was no Democratic primary, but on the Republican side, three candidates faced off at the pools in what grew to be one of the higher profile races of the day, with frequent advertisements and television appearances from both Jeff Landry and Hunt Downer.

The third candidate, Kristian Magar, received just 14 percent of the vote, while Landry and Downer garnered 50 and 36 percent, respectively.

Although Landry came out on top, he did not win a majority of the vote, so the two will compete in a runoff election on Oct. 2.

The Oct. 2 ballot will also feature the race for lieutenant governor, judge for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and a number of local school board and council-level races in the River Parishes.

Today is the last day to register to vote in that election, but residents have until Oct. 4 to register to vote in the Nov. 2 election, which will decide the ultimate winner in these contests.