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Hundreds of new laws from this year’s regular session go into effect Thursday, including several that will reshape different corners of Louisiana politics.

From qualifications for elected officials and financial disclosure to election fraud and voter registration drives, our policymakers dove deep this cycle to implement a number of new political laws.

Here are some of the changes, by bill number and subject matter, you can expect on Aug. 1…

— HB 675: Requires enforcement actions for campaign finance violations to be filed first before the Ethics Adjudicatory Board, though they are subject to removal to district court.

— HB 188: Requires school board members to have a high school degree. 

— SB 52: If an officeholder must file the same disclosure required of candidates for the same office, the officeholder report will satisfy the need for a candidate report.

— SB 13: Prohibits an elected official who has been removed from office from running for and filling the vacancy created by their ouster.

— SB 226: If the affidavit flap is missing the signature of the voter, the signature of the witness or the voter’s mother’s maiden name, the vote doesn’t count. 

— SB 258: An absentee or early vote still counts when the voter dies before Election Day. 

— SB 420: Creates the crime of election fraud or forgery. 

— HB 677: Makes several changes to state election laws. 

— HB 476: Prohibits sending more than one marked ballot per election to the registrar by any person, except an immediate family member of another voter acting on their behalf. 

— HB 570: Authorizes voters who have changed their party affiliation to vote for party committees, as long as the change was made before registration closed. 

— SB 488: Prohibits political committees from distributing material containing any statement which they know or should be reasonably expected to know makes a false statement about a candidate in the election.

— HB 411: Provides the procedure for returning excess campaign donations. 

— HB 506: Regulates registration drives and provides that filling out information on another person’s voter registration application, except when assisting an applicant as allowed by existing law, is a criminal offense.

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