This story has been updated with additional information.
Just weeks after Hurricane Helene struck the Southeast, claiming at least 182 lives, voters there will be casting ballots in what’s poised to be one of the most contentious presidential elections in United States history.
In the aftermath of the storm — the most powerful on record to hit Florida’s Big Bend region — utility and cellular service outages persist, days later, in several states, including key battlegrounds Georgia and North Carolina. With polls showing a tight race between Republican former President Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, the impact of Hurricane Helene on voter turnout and election logistics is expected to be significant.
Election officials say they are working to ensure that everyone who wants to vote can do so, despite the storm’s damage and disruptions.
“Mountain people are strong, and the election people who serve them are resilient and tough, too,” Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said in a statement Monday. “Just go back to 2020, when we held an incredibly successful election with record turnout during the Covid pandemic. We’ve battled through hurricanes and tropical storms, too, and still held safe and secure elections. And we will do everything in our power to do so again.”
In North Carolina, 25 counties designated as disaster areas due to Hurricane Helene account for over 16% of the state’s registered voters. Election offices in 10 counties currently are closed. Though the state’s western counties have generally supported Republicans in recent elections, those with closed offices include two — Buncombe and Watauga — that supported President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
Buncombe County, one of the hardest-hit areas, is especially significant. It is the seventh most-populous of North Carolina’s 100 counties, and Biden received 96,515 votes there in 2020, according to data from the state’s elections board.
Ultimately, Biden lost North Carolina by the narrowest margin of any state, receiving 48.59% of the ballots cast as compared to 49.93% for Trump, with the remaining votes going to third-party candidates.
The closure of the polling centers in Buncombe and Watauga counties, along with Henderson County — which collectively accounted for 352,261 votes in 2020 — could significantly impact voter turnout.
Altogether, more than 500,000 voters live in the counties where offices are closed, with about 266,570 leaning Democratic and about 197,000 leaning Republican in 2020. That mirrored the narrow 78,000-vote difference that determined the outcome of the presidential race in North Carolina.
Michael Morley, a law professor at Florida State University who has extensively researched disasters and other calamities during election seasons, said that he believes Helene will affect the upcoming election, though he is uncertain as to the extent.
“I think certainly this will create new barriers to voting, to… people who have been displaced, people whose lives have been thrown into crisis,” Morley said. “Plus, voting might be the last thing on their minds at this point — and quite understandably. They just lost their home, perhaps — God forbid — a family member has been… injured or killed. A crisis of this nature, unavoidably, is going to impact individuals’ ability to vote.”
Will voting carry on as normal in North Carolina?
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, many familiar polling places in North Carolina may no longer be standing. The storm’s destruction leveled schools, community centers, and churches — vital voting hubs that are central to civic participation.
Now, as election officials begin surveying the damage, they face uncertainty about where thousands of voters will go to exercise their right in the upcoming election.
As of Wednesday morning, the North Carolina elections board had not issued a detailed plan, but Brinson Bell, the director, said the board’s “top priorities are to ensure the safety of our county boards of elections and poll workers, and to ensure every eligible voter who wants to cast a ballot in this election can do so.’
She said the board is focused on getting election offices reopened “so that new absentee ballot requests can be processed, and voter registrations can be entered into the system” before an Oct. 11 deadline ahead of the Oct. 17 beginning of early voting. Some counties will receive special emergency kits, “election offices in a box,” so they can continue to work despite internet and phone service issues, she said.
As county offices reopen, she said, they will begin assessing early voting sites and Election Day polling places to determine which won’t be available. In an interview with NPR, she said its possible the board could set up temporary early voting sites in tents in parking lots as the state did when Hurricane Dorian hit eastern North Carolina in 2019.
“It’s not without consideration that I or someone else will go in that community and knock on doors if that’s what it takes,” she told NPR.
More: When is early voting in NC? Absentee voting? What to know ahead of Election Day 2024
In her statement Monday, she pointed voters with questions to a special website, csbe.gov/Helene.
“Our hearts go out to all North Carolinians affected by Hurricane Helene, including our neighbors, friends and colleagues in Western North Carolina,” she said. “When disasters strike elections, we use this mantra: ‘We do not stop an election; we figure out how to proceed.’”
The board did not respond to a request for further comment.
What are state election board’s emergency powers?
Morley noted that most states have provisions allowing voters to cast ballots at alternate polling places if their designated locations are inaccessible due to a disaster. Local election officials can establish emergency voting sites if necessary.
“Most states also have specific emergency provisions that they would allow for the use of paper ballots as an alternative,” he said. “North Carolina has a very broad statute dealing with election emergency that says when there’s a natural disaster, when there’s inclement weather, the State Board of Elections can exercise emergency powers.”
At a recent meeting, the bipartisan board passed a resolution granting the 25 counties in the disaster area the flexibility to reschedule meetings for considering returned absentee ballots. The meetings were scheduled to begin Tuesday in all 100 counties, but it’s not clear if all did.
Still, there are some limitations. A major one, Morley said, is that North Carolina’s board cannot automatically send absentee ballots to all registered voters. Instead, it may distribute absentee ballot request forms, which voters must complete and return to receive an absentee ballot.
That process is crucial because it ensures ballots are only sent to individuals who actively confirm their eligibility and intent to vote, thereby minimizing the risk of ballots being sent to outdated or incorrect addresses. If ballots were sent automatically to all registered voters, there would be a significant risk of them being dispatched to incorrect addresses, raising concerns about election security and the potential misuse of unclaimed ballots.
The issue is particularly pressing as the board already is grappling with a significant challenge regarding mail-in ballots. Among the 37,820 ballots sent out just two days before Hurricane Helene made landfall, 37,185 remain outstanding, according to the board’s latest data.
Most states have a provision that allows voters to request a new absentee ballot if their original ballot is spoiled, according to Morley. In a statement on Monday, the North Carolina board emphasized that anyone who has requested an absentee ballot can instead opt to vote in person or request a new one online at the North Carolina Absentee Ballot Portal.
And already North Carolina will see an influx of absentee ballot requests from people Helene displaced, Morley added. Additionally, prolonged power outages have interrupted voter registration.
While Morley said states can change or extend deadlines under election emergency statues, and courts can step in to extend deadlines in extreme cases, the North Carolina board’s website still displays the original deadline date for voter registration.
“In the wake of a of a disaster this widespread, there’s a limit to what they can do (due to the severity of the disaster),” Morley said. “But in terms of election emergency laws, North Carolina is better positioned than many other states to deal with a crisis like this. A lot will come down to how the state board chooses to exercise that emergency power.
“But I’m sure that election officials will do everything they can in order to reduce the unexpected burdens created by this disaster,” he added.
Is this the first disaster to hit so close to an election day?
The United States is no stranger to elections season emergencies.
One of the most notable was the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, which coincided with a primary election in New York City, where more than 50 candidates were competing in the City Council and mayoral races, Morley said.
As swiftly as North Carolina election officials are anticipated to respond to their crisis, Morley pointed out that New York City officials quickly began planning for a resolution. Even as the second tower fell, authorities were already discussing a new date for the city’s elections, he said.
“All branches of government got involved there,” Morley said in an earlier interview in March after wildfires threatened the primary election in the Texas Panhandle. “As an initial matter, a court issued an ex parte temporary restraining order to enjoin voting in New York City, basically to suspend elections in the area that was affected by the terrorist attacks. The governor then stepped in and issued an executive order, which suspended voting for the day, and the legislature stepped in and passed the statute that set up an alternate day for voting.”
Natural disasters have also disrupted elections on several occasions.
Morley cited Hurricane Zeta, which struck Mississippi and eastern Louisiana just days before the 2020 presidential election, leaving 2 million people without power and resulting in at least six deaths. Morley noted that even if the storm had made landfall on Election Day, it was unlikely that officials would have rescheduled the election.
He expressed similar sentiments regarding Hurricane Helene, explaining that while some flexibility exists, “ultimately, you’re going to hit a hard and fast deadline.”
Current federal law defines Election Day to allow for additional voting periods in the event of a catastrophic event that prevents a state from conducting the election as scheduled. This means federal law accommodates the need for extra in-person voting days or extended deadlines for receiving ballots. However, Morley cautioned that those adjustments introduce more complexities.
The final deadline is determined by the timeline for casting electoral votes, followed by Congress’ counting of those votes, and finally, the inauguration, all of which are mandated by the Constitution. Any extensions or rescheduling could complicate those processes.
But as the frequency of natural disasters increases—totaling a record $18 billion in damages in the U.S. last year—Morley expects more states will assess their impact and perhaps will add broader statues or timelines to their election codes.
Such measures would not be unprecedented. Florida lawmakers took action in response to the impact of Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5 hurricane that killed 65 people in South Florida in 1992. The storm significantly influenced voter turnout in the worst-hit parts of Homestead and Leisure City, with only 1.5% of eligible voters participating in the election that included races for three congressional seats and numerous state and local offices.
And in what Morley characterized as a “wakeup call,” state officials in Louisiana implemented new laws after another Category 5 storm, Hurricane Katrina, struck New Orleans in 2005. The disaster came five months ahead of scheduled municipal elections, and then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco still postponed the election by two months.
“At the end of the day, conversations could be different had the hurricane occurred on Election Day,” Morley said.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: How will voting carry on in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene?
