I traveled to western North Carolina on Oct. 18 to get a firsthand account of how Hurricane Helene and the response to it are affecting voting there.
I spoke with Yancey County elections director Mary Beth Tipton and Madison County elections director Jacob Ray about their and the state’s response to the hurricane. I then visited the early voting site in Hot Springs, near the border with Tennessee.
Here is what I learned.
The Damage from Helene and Its Effect on Voting Is Extensive but Uneven
We have all seen the footage of massive damage in North Carolina’s mountains and foothills, with roads destroyed and homes carried downstream. I witnessed some of that when I visited the area three weeks after Helene struck. I saw a valley near Burnsville (in Yancey County) that had been thoroughly scoured, leaving nothing but exposed rock, earth, and debris.
But, even in the hardest hit areas, the worst damage is localized. Most areas have damaged roads and downed power lines that are being repaired. Many regions of the North Carolina mountains are welcoming tourists again. All election boards in the affected counties are operating. This means that most people in the area who want to vote will be able to do so as they always have. Others will have to make significant adjustments. For example, Yancey County’s Ramseytown precinct lost its regular voting location and was essentially cut in half by flood damage.
The General Assembly and State Board of Elections Responded Appropriately
The North Carolina General Assembly and State Board of Elections (SBE) responded to Helene with a host of temporary changes to election law and regulations. Among numerous other changes, affected counties could alter early voting times and places, and Election Day precinct locations can accept election workers and observers from outside the county. Displaced voters can submit their mail ballot in person to any early voting or county board of elections site in the state.
In addition to those changes, the General Assembly provided $5 million to the SBE to assist election boards in the affected areas. That assistance included an emergency generator that the SBE provided to the Hot Springs early voting site in Yancey County.
Both election officials I spoke with said that the changes were both necessary and sufficient to address the election problems that the affected counties face. Tipton said, “There was a lot of thought, evidently, that went into that bill.” She then described how the changes allow voters who have been displaced or face road closures to take advantage of the new rules to vote. Ray was “surprised at how much they did open it up” and expressed confidence that the election would go well.
Local Election Officials Are Ready
Even as people were initially accessing damage after Hurricane Helene struck on Sept. 27 and state officials were preparing help for the affected counties, local election officials were opening back for business. When early voting began on Oct. 17, election officials in the affected counties were operating 76 sites, only four fewer than initially planned.
The offices of the Yancey County and Madison County boards of elections are both located on high ground, so they were largely unaffected by Helene aside from lost power. That worked out well for Yancey County since the board of elections’ office is also the county’s only early voting site. Madison County had to change one early voting site because the original site in downtown Hot Springs had been rendered unusable by flooding. Madison County Board of Elections secretary Dyatt Smathers showed me the alternate site they opened a few blocks away.
There I met Dean Benfield and her crew operating the early voting site at the Hot Springs Senior Meal Site on the edge of town. She was working there despite several people in her immediate family losing homes or otherwise being severely impacted by Helene. That kind of dedication across the region led SBE Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell to tell reporters, “We are especially grateful to residents of western North Carolina who suffered greatly from the storm but who will show up to work at early voting sites this week.”
If Turnout Is Lower, It Will Not Be Because of Election Mismanagement
That underscores that having sites is useless if you do not have workers to manage them. The affected counties in western North Carolina have been blessed in that regard. Tipton reported that in Yancey County, “I can thankfully say we’ve got two poll workers out of like 97 [who] were actually displaced and are not going to be able to work” on Election Day. Ray indicated that Madison County was in even better shape for Election Day, saying they have more potential backup workers than usual.
That dedication, combined with the guidance of county and state election officials and the flexibility provided by the General Assembly, means that citizens in the affected counties who want to vote will be able to do so.
That ability is reflected in the turnout in the 13 counties hardest hit by Helene and included in the SBE’s Oct. 7 resolution (including Madison and Yancey). While early voting turnout in those counties is down at this point compared with the same point in 2020, it is down only by 4.6%. As the region continues to recover, I expect turnout voting to increase.
From precinct officials, early voting workers, and county election officials to the General Assembly and the SBE, all are rising admirably to the challenge Hurricane Helene imposed on them.