The Louisiana Secretary of State has rescheduled the state’s primaries, which were postponed last week because of Hurricane Gustav, for Oct. 4.

The primary had been scheduled for Sept. 6, but the hurricane earlier in the week caused so much displacement that state officials did not believe they could draw a sufficient number of voters to the polls.

Early voting for the primaries will take place from Sept. 20 to 27.

Oct. 4 had originally been the date scheduled for runoffs in contests where a candidate did not get 50 percent of the vote. For races that need runoffs, those will be held on the national Election Day, Nov. 4. For those races that don’t need runoffs, Nov. 4 will serve as the general election. For races that need runoffs, the general election will be pushed back to Dec. 6.

Only two Congressional races are expected to produce primary runoffs: in the 2nd district Democratic primary, where several candidates are taking on indicted Rep. William Jefferson (D), and in the 4th district Republican primary, where four candidates are seeking the GOP nod in the race to replace retiring Rep. Jim McCrery (R).