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The Breakdown: Why were 40,000 signatures rejected from the recall petition?

More than 27,000 recall petition signatures were accepted, but many more, nearly 40,000, were rejected. Here's a close look.

NEW ORLEANS — Nearly 40,000 signatures in the recall petition were rejected for a whole array of reasons.

We took a look at why they were rejected in your Breakdown.

According to Governor John Bel Edwards, the recall petition contained more than 67,000 total handwritten signatures.

More than 27,000 were accepted, but many more, nearly 40,000, were rejected.

Here's a close look:

More than 34,000 signatures were submitted in the six months before the deadline.

Around 7,000 of those, or about 20%, were thrown out. That's in line with how many signatures are normally thrown out in recalls across the country.

But the recall organizers and supporters also had five days after the deadline to submit any additional signatures. In that time, they submitted another 32,000.

That’s almost the same amount as was collected in the six months leading up to the deadline. But the Orleans Registrar of Voters rejected all but 24 of those signatures.

But why?

The Registrar of Voters said about 5,000 signatures were duplicates. 900 were from out-of-parish voters. And a whopping 26,000 were rejected because of what the registrar labeled "other" reasons.

That could be anything from having signed after the deadline, to erroneous information, or just not following the recall petition guidelines.

As for if the recall campaign will challenge any of the signatures being thrown out, we'll see in the coming weeks.

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