Changes

Boucher was personally and politically close to Governor Earl Long, who sometimes visited in the Boucher home in Springhill. In 1958, Long appointed Boucher to fill the newly established position of director of the state Board of Registration. The title was changed thereafter to “custodian of voting machines.”<ref name=bobit/> The duties of elections administration were removed by the legislature at Long’s insistence to a separate department from the office of then anti-Long Secretary of State Wade Omer Martin, Jr. (1911-1990). After a year, Long replaced Boucher in the position with [[Douglas Fowler]], a local politician from Coushatta in Red River Parish.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/tabid/157/Default.aspx|title=Three Custodians in Four Years|publisher=Louisiana.gov|accessdate=June 24, 2009}}</ref> Years later, another Louisiana secretary of state, [[Al Ater]] of Ferriday in Concordia Parish, reversed the process begun by Boucher and returned the elections duties back to the secretary of state's office after the separate elections department was abolished.

Boucher was personally and politically close to Governor Earl Long, who sometimes visited in the Boucher home in Springhill. In 1958, Long appointed Boucher to fill the newly established position of director of the state Board of Registration. The title was changed thereafter to “custodian of voting machines.”<ref name=bobit/> The duties of elections administration were removed by the legislature at Long’s insistence to a separate department from the office of then anti-Long Secretary of State Wade Omer Martin, Jr. (1911-1990). After a year, Long replaced Boucher in the position with [[Douglas Fowler]], a local politician from Coushatta in Red River Parish.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/tabid/157/Default.aspx|title=Three Custodians in Four Years|publisher=Louisiana.gov|accessdate=June 24, 2009}}</ref> Years later, another Louisiana secretary of state, [[Al Ater]] of Ferriday in Concordia Parish, reversed the process begun by Boucher and returned the elections duties back to the secretary of state's office after the separate elections department was abolished.

Long named Douglas Fowler as the custodian of voting machines because Boucher did not intend to seek the position in the 1959–1960 election cycle. Long, who ran for lieutenant governor that year on an intra-party ticket with former interim Governor James Albert Noe, Sr. (1890-1976) of [[Monroe, Louisiana|Monroe]], wanted one of his appointees to be on the ballot for the first election for custodian of voting machines. Fowler won the post in a Democratic runoff primary and held it until his pending retirement and subsequent death in 1980; Fowler was succeeded by his son, [[Jerry Fowler]]. In 1976, the name of the position was changed again to the "elections commissioner," now an appointed position.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/tabid/157/Default.aspx|title=Elections Mission and History|publisher=sos.louisiana.gov|accessdate=August 6, 2009}}</ref>​

Long named Douglas Fowler as the custodian of voting machines because Boucher did not intend to seek the position in the 1959–1960 election cycle. Long, who ran for lieutenant governor that year on an intra-party ticket with former interim Governor James Albert Noe, Sr. (1890-1976) of [[Monroe, Louisiana|Monroe]], wanted one of his appointees to be on the ballot for the first election for custodian of voting machines. Fowler won the post in a Democratic runoff primary and held it until his pending retirement and subsequent death in 1980; Fowler was succeeded by his son, [[Jerry Fowler]]. In 1976, the name of the position was changed again to the "elections commissioner," now an appointed position.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State "Election Mission and History, accessed August 6, 2009; no longer on-line.</ref>​

In the 1959 Democratic primary when Boucher declined to run for voting machine custodian, he was instead an unsuccessful candidate from Webster Parish for a seat on  the Louisiana Democratic State Central Committee. He was defeated by a 4-3 margin by the dairyman, Roy Don Hinton, Sr. (1912-2011), of Minden.<ref>"Hinton Wins Seat on State Central Committee," ''Minden Press,'' December 7, 1959, p. 1.</ref>

In the 1959 Democratic primary when Boucher declined to run for voting machine custodian, he was instead an unsuccessful candidate from Webster Parish for a seat on  the Louisiana Democratic State Central Committee. He was defeated by a 4-3 margin by the dairyman, Roy Don Hinton, Sr. (1912-2011), of Minden.<ref>"Hinton Wins Seat on State Central Committee," ''Minden Press,'' December 7, 1959, p. 1.</ref>