Hurricane devastation could disrupt voting in swing state of North Carolina

The devastating path charted by Hurricane Helene has taken at least 190 lives, decimated entire communities, and cut off access to food, water, and power for many. It could also disrupt voting, including in North Carolina, one of just a handful of states that will likely decide the 5 November presidential election.

Long before the storm made landfall on Thursday, politicos have kept a close eye on North Carolina as a key battleground state, with polls showing the state is closely divided in the choice between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

Early voting in North Carolina will begin on 17 October as planned, state officials said, but adhering to that schedule won’t be an easy task.

“The destruction is unprecedented and this level of uncertainty this close to election day is daunting,” Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the state’s election board, told reporters.

In-person voting

North Carolina counties are required to offer at least 13 days of in-person early voting. Many counties may struggle to meet that requirement.

Officials said they were unaware of any voting equipment or ballots destroyed by Helene, but five county election offices in western North Carolina were closed as of Thursday morning.

It is also still unknown how many early voting sites and election day locations will be inaccessible due to mudslides, damaged roads or fallen trees, Brinson Bell said on Tuesday.

In-person voting stations require electricity and potable water, something several western North Carolina counties still lack after the storm. They also require staff, and it is not clear how many would-be poll workers have had to relocate due to the storm.

Buncombe county – home to the region’s Democratic stronghold of Asheville – was planning to open 14 early voting locations on 17 October. Officials are currently scrambling to assemble the logistics needed to do so, and were already forced to cancel a training session for early voting workers this week, county officials said.

Mail-in voting

North Carolina was poised to be the first US state to send out mail-in ballots to voters for the fall election, but experienced a delay even before Helene. Due to a court order that said ballots must be reprinted without the option of Robert F Kennedy Jr – the former independent candidate who in August suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump – the state’s first mail-in ballots were only sent out on 24 September, two weeks after initially planned.

Now, following Helene, the US Postal Service (USPS) has been forced to halt to mail delivery to homes and businesses in dozens of zip codes across the western North Carolina until further notice.

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An additional complicating factor: in rural North Carolina, some postal workers use their own cars to deliver mail, and officials do not know how many workers’ personal vehicles were destroyed by Helene, environmental publication Grist reported.

“The safety of our customers and employees is the Postal Service’s top priority in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene,” Martha Johnson, a USPS spokesperson, said in an emailed statement, adding that the agency is “committed to delivering each piece of mail where it is safe to do so and where roads are passable”, and will “continue to communicate with local boards of election in impacted areas to ensure the ongoing transport and delivery of Election Mail as soon as it is safe to do so”.

In addition to delays in mailing out ballots, voters will also have a smaller window to return them to be counted. Last year, the state’s Republican-led general assembly eliminated a three-day grace period for mail-in ballots to arrive after election day, meaning they will now be required to arrive at county elections boards by 7.30pm on 5 November, with exceptions for voters in the military or overseas.

That deadline may be even harder to meet for the hundreds of North Carolinians who were displaced by Helene, and are required under state law to request new ballots to be sent to their the temporary locations.

The elections board is still assessing whether to ask the state to reinstate the grace period, they told reporters on Tuesday.

If they do not make the request, they could face lawsuits from voting rights groups.

But Brinson Bell told CNN other options may be “more beneficial”, such as allowing voters to drop off ballots on election day rather than just being able to drop them off at early voting sites and election day polling places.

Competing priorities

With many North Carolina voters cut off from electricity, internet and cell service, officials expect difficulties in communicating changes to polling locations or mail-in voting processes.

Many impacted residents may also be too overwhelmed or busy with relocation, clean up, and other concerns, leaving them unable or unwilling to go to the polls.

After Hurricane Michael struck Florida in 2018, for instance, then governor Rick Scott issued an executive order aimed at expanding opportunities to vote. But the state still saw a 10% decline in voter turnout, a University of Chicago study found, because “polling place closures and increased travel distances meaningfully depressed turnout.”

A September study from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, intergovernmental organization, warned that four 21st-century hurricanes – 2005’s Katrina, 2012’s Sandy, 2018’s Michael and 2022’s Ian – have already “majorly” disrupted elections.

“The chances of hurricanes disrupting US elections are ever-present and will increase as hurricanes become more common and intense due to climate change,” the study says.

But officials are confident in their ability to “conduct a safe, secure, and successful election in 2024”, Brinson Bell said in a Monday statement.

“When disasters strike elections, we use this mantra: ‘We do not stop an election; we figure out how to proceed,’” she said. “While we do not know exactly what is ahead, our guiding force between now and Election Day will be to do everything possible to ensure every eligible North Carolina voter can cast their ballot.”

George Chidi contributed to this report