The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted unanimously on Monday to pass a resolution that modifies election procedures for 13 counties hit hardest by Tropical Storm Helene.
North Carolina law allows the board to exercise emergency powers to conduct an election in a district where the normal schedule for the election is disrupted by a natural disaster. While all county boards of elections offices across North Carolina have reopened following the storm, many communities face damaged facilities and inadequate resources.
Despite progress in the 10 days since the storm hit Western North Carolina, ongoing disruptions to the postal service, election infrastructure, voting sites, and transportation have prompted the Board to expand voting procedures in the following counties: Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Transylvania, Watauga, and Yancey.
The counties have been authorized to modify their early voting plans, amounting to 40 locations, by changing voting sites, the number of days a site is open, and hours of operation without approval from the State Board. Modifications to the number of hours open to participate in early voting should be minimized, the resolution states.
“We are committed to ensuring that we open early voting on the 17th in all 100 counties, including these affected counties,” said Board Director Karen Brinson Bell. “It may look a little different in these affected counties, but we fully intend to offer early voting starting on the 17th. We also plan to provide as much voting opportunity as we can for Election Day voting sites as well.”
The resolution also allows voters to request and receive an absentee ballot in person at their county board of elections office up until the day before the election. Every county’s local postal service is reportedly functional in sending and receiving mail, although there may be issues with reaching certain areas.
Voters are also able to deliver their completed absentee ballots to another County’s Board of Elections in North Carolina or to the State Board Office, as long as that ballot is received by the statewide statutory deadline, 7:30 pm on Election Day. Counties will be required to report absentee ballots received weekly, enabling the tracking of ballots that will be transmitted to the original county.
The resolution also allows for the emergency appointment of election officials and the reassignment of poll workers. The state board is coordinating with the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management to provide election-related aid to affected counties. Supplies include temporary facilities to host voting, temporary restrooms, and generators.
“Whatever their needs are, we have been told that those will be fulfilled,” said Board Director Karen Brinson Bell. “Our struggles are not over, and that is why we need the Board to take action, to give the flexibility necessary to carry out these elections and to be of the best service to the voters that we can be.”
Board member Stacy Eggers said he is generally very hesitant to make changes to the normal running of elections, but the latest changes have been tailored to give the county boards flexibility to meet specific needs.
“If there’s a headline that comes out of this resolution, it should be that we will continue to make voting accessible to the voters, and whether we need four-wheelers, horses or helicopters, this disaster highlights the need for consistency in our work and making sure that we get to the locations that the voters expect us to be,” said Eggers, who lives in one of the impacted counties. “The proposal that we have before us is all about logistics, and in order to make this happen, we need to give those affected counties and their voters the logistical assistance they need.”
Eggers has been to five of the counties that have been declared disaster sites and has seen firsthand the damage caused to these areas. Over 100,000 people are still without power in North Carolina with significant blocks in telecommunications and road access.