Voting to continue in North Carolina as storm recovery begins

With just 36 days until Election Day, the North Carolina State Board of Elections held an emergency meeting Monday afternoon to decide how to ensure voting will continue after devastating damage from Hurricane Helene.

In the preliminary meeting, which the board said would be one of many needed in the coming weeks, the board voted unanimously to allow counties affected by the disaster to delay absentee voting board meetings.

Asheville, most-populous city in western North Carolina at nearly 100,000, and the surrounding North Carolina continue to be largely stranded from the rest of the nation as bridges, roads and highways were rendered impassable. As the meeting commenced at 4 p.m., DriveNC.org reported 432 road closures statewide because of Helene.

The counties allowed to delay the meetings include all those under federal disaster declarations. Many are without power, cell service, or water.

“We have been able to reach out to the affected counties, and we know that 14 of the 22 counties that we are in contact with are indicating that they are closed at this time today, and we anticipate several more days of closure,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the board.

Helene, a Category 4 hurricane when it hit the Big Bend of Florida on Thursday night, is forecast to leave behind more than $100 billon in damage and economic loss throughout multiple states.

“This is a difficult situation for most of our state,” said Chairman Alan Hirsch.

The absentee voting board meetings were meant to be held every Tuesday, beginning on Oct. 1. In these meetings, county election boards review absentee ballots to determine whether they are eligible for counting.

“What we’re recommending is for the board, under its emergency authority, to provide flexibility for those county boards to continue to have those meetings, but to reschedule them as needed,” said Paul Cox, general counsel for the board.

The board all voiced their support for the measure and their concerns for the counties affected. And, even as western North Carolina rebuilds, the board promised that voting will go on.

“As we have said many times through other hurricanes, pandemic, and natural disasters, we do not stop an election, we figure out how to proceed,” Bell said.