With a federal election approaching in a little more than a month, voter registrars are getting busy making preparations.

The April 4 balloting will be a closed primary election, meaning that only those people registered as Republicans or Democrats will be able to vote, and even then only for candidates of their own parties.

“There will be four ballots in our parish,” Iberia Parish Registrar of Voters Kristie Blanchard said Wednesday. “One is for Democrats and lists their presidential candidates. Then there is the Republican ballot. In District 46 and District 48, there will be separate ballots to include people running for the state Democratic Committee.”

Because federal elections have a different time frame from state elections, Blanchard said she has already completed those ballots and submitted them to the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office.

“We have to submit those 45 days out from the election, so they went out Friday,” Blanchard said.

One of the concerns Blanchard expressed is that voters will not be registered correctly to be able to vote in the election. Because it is segregated by party, independent, undeclared or third-party voters will not be allowed to participate.

“If voters want to switch their party affiliation, they have until March 4 to do it by mail or in person,” Blanchard said. “Personally, I would do it in person.”

She said that if a voter can’t make it into the office before the deadline, they still can make changes or register online until March 14 through the state’s GeauxVote.com site. Blanchard said if voters are registered to the wrong party for this election, they will not be able to vote for their candidates.

“If a voter gets to the polling location and they want to change their registration, they will be out of luck,” Blanchard said. “The machine will be locked into whichever party they are registered as.”

She said the office has seen a stream of voters changing their affiliation in the past weeks.

“We have been getting calls,” Blanchard said.

She also said that there have been several voter drives taking place, bringing new voters into the fold.

“We had about 120 new registrations last week,” Blanchard said. “When people want to do a voter registration drive, we provide them with the education about the process and the frms that they will need.”

Although the deadline to complete registration for the April 4 contest by mail is March 4, mail-in corrections or changes will be accepted later as long as they are postmarked by March 4.

“Even if I did it using the online site, I would call and make sure that the changes went through,” she said. “Voters will need a computer and a valid Louisiana driver’s license to register or make any changes. If the license is expired, it won’t work.”

Blanchard also said she is predicting a huge turnout for the fall election, just based on the number of races on the ballot and the interest she has seen this early.

“You’ll have senate seats, representatives, judicial races, mayoral elections, council races,” she said. “And there’s a presidential election, too.”