BATON ROUGE mdash; State officials on Tuesday outlined changes to give would-be candidates more time to qualify for special elections in parts of the Baton Rouge area.A special election will be held in 2026 for District 1 of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which covers Tangipahoa P arish along with Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes. BESE member Paul Hollis left to run the U.S. Mint.District 1 of the Louisiana Supreme Court is open after Justice Will Crain moved to the U.S. District Court in New Orleans. The district covers Livingston, Orleans, St. Bernard, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa and Washington parishes.Both seats will be involved in closed primaries in 2026.Nominating petitions under a new law would have been due Jan. 14 for candidates not seeking Democratic or Republican Party positions, but because the vacancies occurred so late in the year, potential candidates will have until Jan. 30 to collect the 150 signatures needed to qualify.Party qualifying will occur from Feb. 11 to Feb. 13. The party primaries will be May 16 and, if needed, runoffs will be June 27. The general election is Nov. 3.Permalink| Comments ...read more read less