Fourth annual Bayou Lafourche Cleanup set for Saturday
March 12, 2015
Xavier Keion Richard
March 19, 2015
With her young daughter beside her, a former teacher named Rhonda Rogers made the promise last week that her own mother made many years ago, to faithfully perform the duties required of a local registrar of voters.
The Terrebonne Parish Council appointed Rogers as the parish’s new Registrar of Voters at last Wednesday’s council meeting, from a field of 19 applicants.
The 14-year-veteran teacher at Schriever Elementary School, was recommended by her mother, Linda Rodrigue, who retired after 36 years of service as Terrebonne’s registrar.
The council was divided between three candidates at first. Votes were split evenly between Rogers and Natalie Bergeron, executive director of Project Learn La-Terre, a non-profit offering literacy and GED education, with one vote out of nine for Shane Fletcher.
Fletcher has been a Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Deputy for 19 years. Councilman Greg Hood, who was a police officer for over 30 years with the Houma Police Department, voted for him.
The council then voted again, split between Rogers and Bergeron 5-4, respectively.
“That was heart pounding,” said Rogers. “That was very nerve wracking, I must say. The process, of getting this position definitely took me out of my comfort zone.”
Rogers said she has learned a lot and has a newfound respect for politicians because she “could never be a politician.” She said to be a politician, one must be “on [their] toes” and very verbal.
“I’m a very neutral person. I don’t speak my opinions. I keep my opinions to myself,” Rogers said. “That’s me.”
That is a very good quality to have, since the Registrar of voters is a non-political lifetime appointment.
The registrar of voters maintains the voter rolls, updating addresses according to the national change of address database, voting machines, and is responsible for the enforcement of state election law.
The current parish council has never had to appoint a registrar of voters.
“We treated everybody equal,” said Councilman Pete Lambert, District Nine. “They had about five people with tremendous qualifications. Tremendous qualifications. And it could have gone to any one of them.
Rogers said she observed the early election process for the last year and a half to see if the job was something she may be interested in, but could not participate in administering the process of voting because she was not authorized by the Secretary of State to do so.
Rogers is stepping into the office during difficult times due to shortfalls in the state government’s budget. The Secretary of State, under whose purview the Registrar’s office falls, sent a memo to Rodrigue in late January stating there is a hiring freeze.
The hiring freeze has been in effect since January of 2014 when Gov. Jindal issued an executive order halting any new hiring or promotions in a number of executive branch offices.
The office employs five people other than the registrar of voters. Having two people retiring this year as well, coupled with the hiring freeze, leaves Rogers’ office in a lurch.
“I’m very concerned about that,” Rogers said. “As soon as I’m in office I can make some phone calls and find out what [is happening with] this process and what do we do to get some help in the office.”
Rogers said this is an opportune time to hire two new people because they can all learn the job together, but stressed that the positions must be filled because this is a big election year and Terrebonne is a big parish.
Michel Claudet’s successor to the Terrebonne Parish presidency will be decided this year, and so will the Republican and Democratic primaries.
The Times asked Rogers if she had any plans for her tenure as registrar. Rogers, coming from an education background, said she plans on, aside from maintaining the current operations of the registrar’s office, investigating the possibility of a voting education program in schools.
“Because if you don’t know, you don’t go,” Rogers said. “It’s a privilege that some people don’t exercise and I think it’s mainly because they’re not educated on [it].”
Roger’s said she will speak to Secretary of State Tom Schedler to explore what she can legally do in her position to educate the public about voting.
Rogers explained that students might participate in mock elections, then go home and tell their families about their experience. She described one woman, in her fifties, she met who was voting for the first time because she was intimidated by voting.
Rogers said that although she may not know every aspect of running the Registrar of Voter’s office, she has been exposed them all of her life by her mother. She said she took every step to make sure that the job was right for her.
“This process was fair,” Rogers said. “I put in the time. I didn’t get it because I was [Rodrigue’s] daughter. I think I got it because I was qualified for it.”
Clerk of Court Theresa Robichaux (left) swears in Rhonda Rogers as the Registrar of Voters on Friday. Beside Rogers is her daughter Lauryn.
