Hurricane Helene has caused significant disruptions for election officials in North Carolina and the Southeast, throwing off early and mail-in voting preparations that have been in the works for months.
In western North Carolina, one of the areas hardest hit by the storm, election officials were working Monday to evaluate what changes needed to be made in a key presidential battleground state where ballots were dropped last week were sent by mail and early in-person voting is scheduled. starting in three weeks.
North Carolina officials mailed out 190,000 ballots last week, some of which may be delayed or destroyed by flooding. Postal service has been suspended in many areas, which will halt the transportation of ballots. And there’s more pressure on voters to receive their ballots early this year: State lawmakers recently eliminated a grace period that allowed timely postmarked ballots to be counted even if they arrived three days after the election.
At least 14 election offices in the county are closed and are expected to remain that way for several days, said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections.
“Right now, as we know it, all members of our elections community are safe and sound and preparing to serve all eligible voters in North Carolina,” Brinson Bell said, noting that officials worked with power through challenging circumstances . outages, limited cell service and impassable roads. An employee in Buncombe County walked four miles to work Monday, she said.
Buncombe County officials are reviewing polling places and trying to ensure accountability for staff and board members. Some staffers are stranded, Corinne Duncan, director of the county’s election services, said in an update shared by a spokesperson. The county’s election offices have power but no water, but staff still managed to drop off 200 mail-in ballots at the post office on Monday.
The State Board of Elections voted Monday to give counties the ability to reschedule board meetings where absentee ballots are reviewed.
Brinson Bell said state officials will soon publish a website with hurricane-related information and will hold a media briefing Tuesday to outline procedures for voters to cite a natural disaster as the reason they don’t have a photo ID, which is required to vote in North Carolina.
Even ballots mailed from unaffected counties could be affected, said Wake County Board of Elections member Gerry Cohen, if they travel to or through the western part of the state.
“Anything to or from western North Carolina is likely to be heavily affected. It would even affect Wake County,” said Cohen (Wake County, home to Raleigh, is further east).
Cohen said voters who are displaced by the storm or do not receive their mail-in ballots can cancel them and request others, although voters will need to contact their local elections office, which may be closed. They can also choose to vote in person, a move that will “spoil” their mail-in ballots so they cannot be counted even if they are returned later, according to the state’s voting site.
Election officials were originally scheduled to begin sending out mail-in ballots on September 6, but were postponed after former third-party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had filed suit to remove himself from the ballot. His lawsuit, which was successful, forced the state to reprint his ballots. Officials began mailing ballots to overseas and military voters on September 20, and to all other voters who requested them last Tuesday.
Early in-person voting will begin on October 17 at more than 400 locations across North Carolina. Every location in the affected provinces must be checked for accessibility, power and water.
Cohen also warned that the hurricane could cause staffing problems. Election officials will have to ensure that their poll workers — many of whom he said have already been trained — are not displaced and can still work their scheduled shifts for the early voting period and on Election Day.
North Carolina is one of the key battleground states where former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris will face off this fall. About 7% of voters in the state cast ballots by mail in the 2022 midterm elections. The hurricane-hit area of North Carolina tends to lean Republican politically, apart from hard-hit Asheville by Democrats.
Election officials in other states hit by the hurricane, including Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee, are also facing challenges.
Robert Sinner, communications director for the Georgia Secretary of State, said most counties were spared significant impacts from the storm, although the Jenkins County elections office suffered some physical damage.
TJ Lundeen, a spokesman for the South Carolina State Election Commission, said he expects some polling places and Election Day locations will have to change.
Doug Kufner, spokesman for the Tennessee Secretary of State, said at least six Election Day polling places and two county election offices in northeast Tennessee have experienced damage or will have accessibility issues.
“The Tennessee election community is united; when someone hurts, we all hurt. The sadness, shock and devastation are enormous,” he said in an email. “However, we are confident that the challenges caused by the floods will be overcome thanks to the planning and resilience of election officials in the affected counties.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
