# What happens in the Louisiana Senate/House races

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-in-the-louisiana-senate-house-races/771357>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 10, 2016, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-in-the-louisiana-senate-house-races/771357 "2016-11-10T14:09:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-in-the-louisiana-senate-house-races/771357/1 "2016-11-10T14:09:51Z")

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As part of my election-following, I’m constantly checking CNN’s election tracker, with its blue and red circles, and waiting for the gray circles to turn one color or the other. Among the circles that are still gray are a Senate race in Louisiana and two House seats from that same state - seems there are multiple candidates splitting the vote, with none having a majority. So, what’s going to happen there? Does a plurality win those seats (and we’re just waiting for votes to be completely tabulated before the circles turn red/blue), or will there be a runoff election at some later date between the front-runners?

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-in-the-louisiana-senate-house-races/771357/2 "2016-11-10T14:38:37Z")

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Louisiana has runoffs scheduled for December 10.

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**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-in-the-louisiana-senate-house-races/771357/3 "2016-11-10T20:17:59Z")

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To be more complete:

If a candidate in the general election does not attain a majority of votes cast, then the top two vote getters are entered into a run-off election, which occurs in December. The winner of the runoff is the winner of the race.

Judging by the vote totals in the Senate race, I’d say it’s likely the Republican will win. I haven’t looked at the two House races.