North Carolina elections officials said Tuesday they plan to start early voting as planned on Oct. 17, including in counties that were devastated by flooding from Hurricane Helene.
But they don’t know how many early voting sites and Election Day polling places will be unusable because of the storm.
“There may be polling places impacted by mudslides, there may be polling places inaccessible because of damaged roads, and there may be polling places with trees that have fallen on them,” said Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the N.C. Board of Elections.
North Carolina is still trying to assess the damage from Helene, which caused massive flooding in the mountainous western part of the state.
Thirteen county elections offices are still closed. That means elections officials there can’t process new registrations, and they can’t send out or receive mail ballots.
Brinson Bell said she hopes to know by the end of the week whether any polling places need to be moved. She said it’s possible the elections board could set up temporary early voting sites in tents in parking lots — something it did after Hurricane Dorian in eastern North Carolina in 2019.
She is confident the election will move forward as planned.
"I or someone else will go in that community and knock on doors if that's what it takes," she said.
North Carolina is one of seven swing states that could decide the presidential election. Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have made numerous visits to the state this year, and polls show it’s a toss-up.
It’s unclear how the storm will impact who turns out to vote.
One of the hardest-hit counties is Buncombe, home to Asheville, which is a Democratic stronghold. But overall, most of the impacted counties are conservative and gave Trump large margins in the 2020 election.
The N.C. Republican Party said it’s studying how the storm may impact turnout, but that it’s too early to comment publicly.
North Carolinians have already started voting by mail.
The state elections board said about 250,000 mail ballots have already been sent out. Officials didn’t know how many of those ballots specifically went to western North Carolina.
It’s possible some of those ballots were damaged or lost in the storm. Others are probably waiting in post offices, unable to be delivered.
Brinson Bell said North Carolina voters can track the status of their mail ballots online if they have internet access. They can request a new mail ballot and the state will void the old one.
The state’s mail ballots were already delayed by more than two weeks after the N.C. Supreme Court ordered the elections board to reprint ballots to remove Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name from the presidential race. The ballots were sent out in late September to voters who requested them.
In addition to the delay in getting mail ballots sent, there also is a tighter window for those mail ballots to be returned. The General Assembly eliminated a three-day grace period for mail ballots to arrive after Election Day. For mail ballots to count, they must arrive at county elections boards by 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 5. (Military ballots and ballots from overseas can arrive later.)
Brinson Bell said she doesn’t know if she will ask state lawmakers to restore the three-day grace period.
She said it might make more sense to ask for more flexibility in where voters can return their mail ballots. Under current state law, voters can only drop off mail ballots at voting sites during early voting. She said she might seek permission to allow voters to drop off mail ballots at polling places on Election Day.
“(We’re) seeing whether that’s something that’s more realistic and beneficial,” she said.
In the 2022 election, about 5% of North Carolinians voted by mail.
