Hurricane Helene ripped through parts of western North Carolina, causing widespread flooding, washing away homes, crippling roads, and leaving hundreds unaccounted for. The devastation is adding a wrinkle to voting in the upcoming election in one of the most critical battleground states, with the election just more than a month away. 

The executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, Karen Brinson Bell, addressed the challenges facing election officials during a press conference on Tuesday, saying, “The destruction is unprecedented, and this level of uncertainty this close to Election Day is daunting.”

“We don’t know this yet, but there may be polling places affected by mudslides, there may be polling places inaccessible because of damaged roads, there may be polling places with trees that have fallen on them,” Ms. Brinson Bell said.

Before Helene struck, the Tar Heel State’s election season was already getting off to a rocky start after the release of absentee ballots was delayed by a fight over whether Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name would remain on the ballot. 

Last week, election officials mailed out 190,000 ballots. However, many of those ballots could be delayed or even destroyed after the historic flooding in the western part of the state. The Postal Service has suspended mail service in the hardest hit parts of North Carolina, where more than 1.3 million people live.

The potential that ballots are delayed due to the storm could result in many not being counted after the legislature removed a grace period that let ballots with on-time postmarks be counted up to three days after Election Day.

Besides disrupting mail-in ballots, the storm has the potential to disrupt in-person voting, as the damage to roads and bridges could make it difficult to get to polling stations in some of the hardest hit areas. 

Hundreds of roads were damaged by the hurricane, making them impassible. North Carolina’s Department of Transportation predicts it could be months before roads in the western part of the state are repaired. Ncdot communications director Jen Goodwin told the local NBC News station at Charlotte that as of Tuesday, 180 roads were still closed. Officials are encouraging residents not to attempt to travel except in cases of emergency. 

There is also the potential that multiple polling stations may not be open come Election Day. On Tuesday, state election officials said the storm did not damage stockpiled paper ballots or voting machines. 

However, they predicted some polling stations would not be operational on Election Day due to damage from flooding. Ms. Brinson Bell said 13 election offices in the 25 counties with federal disaster declarations are closed. Once they are “back up and running,” she said officials will begin to “assess early voting sites and Election Day polling places to see the extent of the damage and which facilities won’t be available.”

Beyond the physical challenges, another looming question is the emotional toll the storm will have on would-be voters. How many North Carolinians will be focused on casting their ballots as they assess the damage to their homes and livelihoods and plot their course forward after the devastation weighs heavily on election officials. 

Buncombe County is located in the western part of North Carolina, which is also home to the Democratic stronghold of Asheville. In 2020, President Biden won the enclave with around 60 percent of the vote. However, President Trump won 25 counties in the western part of the state under federal disaster declarations with around 62 percent of the vote. And the former president won North Carolina by 74,483 votes in 2020. 

Despite a scandal involving comments allegedly made by Republican gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson on a pornography site that threatened to drag Trump down, a poll from Quinnipiac University out Tuesday shows the presidential race is still competitive in the state.

According to the poll, taken on the day immediately preceding the storm, Trump receives 49 percent support, while Vice President Harris garners 47 percent.

With such a tight margin in the race, issues with ballots not being counted due to storm-related delays in their arrival or difficulties with voters getting to the polling stations have the potential to impact the outcome of the race in North Carolina.
Despite the challenges, Ms. Brinson Bell promised the state will “conduct a safe, secure, and successful election.”