Hurricane Helene caused significant disruption for election officials in North Carolina and the Southeast, complicating months of early and mail-in voting preparations.
Election officials in western North Carolina, one of the areas hardest hit by the storm, were working Monday to assess what changes should be made in the key presidential race state, where mail-in ballots went out last week and early in-person voting was scheduled. will start in three weeks.
North Carolina officials mailed 190,000 ballots last week, some of which may be delayed or destroyed by the flooding. Postal service has been suspended to many areas, which will stop the delivery of ballots. Voters are under more pressure to get their ballots in early this year: State lawmakers recently eliminated a grace period that allowed ballots with timely postmarks to be counted even if they arrived three days after the election.
Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections, said at least 14 county election offices were closed and expected to remain for several days.
“As far as we know, all members of our election community are safe and sound and ready to serve all eligible voters in North Carolina,” Brinson Bell said, noting that officials are working under difficult conditions. outages, limited cell service and impassable roads. A worker in Buncombe County walked more than 4 miles to work Monday, he said.
Buncombe County officials are assessing voting precincts and working to count staff and board members. Some workers are on hold, Corinne Duncan, the county’s director of election services, said in an update shared by a spokeswoman. The county’s election offices have electricity but no water, but workers still managed to drop off 200 mail-in ballots at the post office on Monday.
The State Board of Elections voted Monday to allow counties to reschedule board meetings where absentee ballots are considered.
Brinson Bell said state officials will soon publish a website for information on the hurricane and will hold a media briefing Tuesday to outline procedures for citing the natural disaster as a reason voters do not have the photo ID required to vote in North Carolina.
Wake County Board of Elections member Gerry Cohen said it could even affect ballots sent from unaffected counties if they move into or through the western part of the state.
“Anything that comes to or from western North Carolina is probably very affected by it. It’s going to affect even Wake County,” Cohen said (Wake County, Raleigh’s home, is further east).
Cohen said voters displaced by the storm or who did not receive their mail-in ballots can cancel them and request others, though voters will need to contact their local election offices, which may be closed, to do so. They can also choose to vote in person, which will “spoil” their mail-in ballots so they can’t be counted, even if they are later returned. according to the state’s voting website.
Election officials were originally scheduled to begin mailing out mail-in ballots on September 6, but were delayed after former third-party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy sued to exclude himself from the ballot. His claim, which was successfulforced the state to reprint its bulletins. Officials began mailing ballots to overseas and military voters on Sept. 20 and to all other voters who requested them last Tuesday.
Early in-person voting is scheduled to begin Oct. 17 at more than 400 locations in North Carolina. Each site in the affected districts should be checked for accessibility, electricity and water.
Cohen also warned that the hurricane could cause staffing problems. Election officials must ensure that poll workers, many of whom they say are already trained, are not displaced and can still work their scheduled shifts for the early voting period and Election Day.
North Carolina is one of the key battleground states between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris this fall. About 7% of the state’s voters voted by mail in the 2022 midterm elections. The North Carolina area hit by the hurricane leans politically Republican, except for Democrat-heavy Asheville.
Election officials in other states affected by the hurricane, including Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee, are also facing problems.
Robert Sinner, director of communications for the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, said that while the Jenkins County elections office suffered some physical damage, most of the county was spared the severe impact of the storm.
South Carolina State Election Commission spokesman TJ Lundeen said he expects some early voting centers and Election Day sites will need to be changed.
Tennessee Secretary of State spokesman Doug Kufner said at least six Election Day polling places and two county election offices in northeast Tennessee were damaged or had issues with driving accessibility.
“The voting community in Tennessee is united; when one of us hurts, we all hurt. The heartache, shock and devastation is overwhelming,” he said in an email. “However, we are confident that the difficulties caused by the floods will be overcome through the planning and resilience of election officials in the affected areas.”