Hurricane Helene has caused significant disruptions for election officials in North Carolina and across the Southeast, scrambling preparations for early and mail voting that have been in the works for months.
In western North Carolina, one of the areas hit hardest by the storm, election officials were working Monday to evaluate what changes needed to be made in a key presidential battleground state where mail ballots started going out last week and early in-person voting is scheduled to begin in three weeks.
North Carolina officials mailed 190,000 ballots last week, some of which may be delayed or destroyed by flooding. Mail service is suspended to many areas, which will halt the transport of the ballots. And there’s more pressure for voters to get their ballots in early this year: State legislators recently eliminated a grace period that allowed ballots with on-time postmarks to be counted even if they arrived three days after the election.
At least 14 county election offices are closed and are expected to be for several days, said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections.
“At this point in time as we know it, all the members of our elections community are safe and sound and preparing themselves to serve all eligible voters in North Carolina,” Brinson Bell said, noting that the officials were working through challenging circumstances with power outages, limited cell service and impassable roads. One staffer in Buncombe County walked more than 4 miles to work Monday, she said.
Officials in Buncombe County are assessing polling sites and working to account for staff and board members. Some staffers are stranded, Corinne Duncan, the county’s election services director, said in an update shared by a spokesperson. The county’s election offices have power but no water, but staffers still managed to drop off 200 mail ballots at the post office Monday….