Mail suspended, flooded election-board offices, Carolina tries to restore voting weeks before Nov 5

North Carolina officials are try to restore voting for residents in western North Carolina after torrential rain and flooding from Hurricane Helene destroyed election board offices and suspended mail service, at least at temporarily.

At least 14 election board offices in the mountainous region, including the city of Asheville, were closed as of late Monday, and mail service there is still suspended, according to The New York Times. 

Absentee voting has already started in the state. In-person early voting begins Oct. 17 and concludes on Nov. 2. Election Day is on Nov. 5.

The largely rural, 11-county region has about 570,000 of the state's 7.7 million registered voters. They include 145,000 Democrats and 185,000 Republicans, the newspaper also reports. 

Other problems including finding alternative polling stations for those destroyed by Helene, which ground through the southeast as tropical storm after making landfall Thursday in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, and helping residents who had to leave their region because their homes were destroyed.

"State Board staff have contacted election officials in the affected counties in Western North Carolina to make sure they are safe, to gather information on damage to election and voting facilities, and to assess potential effects on absentee and in-person voting," said the North Carolina board of elections in a statement.

State election officials launched a special webpage, ncsbe.gov/Helene, as a "source of information for voters affected by the hurricane." The webpage will "include information on county board office closures, tips for voters affected by the storm, and basic information about voting in this election," according to the state board of elections.

Helene damage has hit more swing states, including Florida and Georgia.