Hurricane Helene NC is true | Election officials are working to ensure access to voting is not made more difficult in the hardest-hit areas

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) — As rescue and recovery efforts continue in the western part of the state, the North Carolina Board of Elections has outlined its efforts to ensure voting access.

“We use special emergency kits. We call them ARKS – Attack Response Kits. They were designed around cybersecurity, but serve their purpose in emergency situations of any kind. Election offices, as we call them, are in three to four districts where we operate.” “We use these so that they can operate despite Internet and telephone problems,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina Board of Elections.

The U.S. Postal Service told election officials that mail delivery and operations were suspended at dozens of post offices and many private mailboxes were likely washed away by the storm.

“If a person is displaced, they may request delivery of a mail-in ballot to their new location. So, for example, if someone had to leave their home in one of the mountain counties and moved to another location in a different county or even in the same county, they can request to have their mail-in ballot delivered to that new location,” said Paul Cox, general counsel for the North Carolina Board of Elections.

While photo ID is required to vote, there is a permissible exception for voters who cannot provide ID if a natural disaster occurred within 100 days of the election. Under state law, affected voters can fill out a photo ID exemption form.

The state returning officers are currently not aware of any damage to voting equipment or lost ballot papers.

While a storm in this region of the state is largely unprecedented, North Carolina has recently experienced a severe storm during a presidential election year. In October 2016, Hurricane Matthew devastated North Carolina, prompting FEMA to designate several counties along the coast and the central and eastern parts of the state as disaster areas. According to political science professor Dr. According to Michael Bitzer of Catawba College, voting rates in affected counties were 1 percent lower than the rest of the state, although those areas saw a slight increase in in-person voting on Election Day.

“Typically, voters are willing to adapt to a different method of voting,” Dr. Bitzer.

While there is more time before the election compared to Hurricane Matthew, the storm’s logistical challenges in the mountains represent separate considerations.

“We’re talking about the potential for early voting sites to no longer exist. We’re talking about Election Day locations, polling places in precincts are suffering from water and may not be structurally capable of accommodating voting equipment,” Bitzer said.

“The single most important thing the General Assembly can do is provide urgent funding to the various affected counties to help them get elected,” said Bob Orr, a retired state Supreme Court justice.

Monday, Senate President Phil Berger posted on X that the General Assembly consider a disaster recovery package.

Orr noted that many local county election boards were already facing funding shortfalls after being ordered to reprint ballots after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was removed from the rolls.

“It’s almost incomprehensible. I know election officials at the state level are saying, even if it’s a disaster, we’ll move forward with the election. But they need the funding so they can get additional equipment so they can get people to the polls.” “Maybe they need to find new polling places, but that’s going to cost money,” Orr said.

He discussed the importance of building trust.

“We need the cooperation of both political parties in the electoral process, because what we don’t want is for a major party or in a certain race (a candidate) to say, ‘The people’, after the fact on November 6th, 7th or 8th.” Up here in the western part of the state, the election was not conducted correctly,” Orr said.

While the final stretch of the election campaign is usually characterized by door-knocking and canvassing, in a situation like this the political calculus changes significantly.

“Of course, campaigns need to recognize that they may put politics aside and say, ‘What can we do to help?'” Bitzer said.

“You have to be extremely sensitive and understand that the last thing people in a community that has been hit by a disaster want is a politician asking for money or trying to play politics with the disaster. And I think the campaigns in both major parties. “I understand that,” Orr added.

The voter registration deadline is Friday, October 11th.

Information for affected voters

The NCBOE has created a special website for voters affected by the hurricane.

Election officials said they would work to provide printed materials to voters in affected areas who may not have cell phone or internet access.

Storm victims with questions about voting are asked to contact their county election authority or state election authority by email at [email protected] or by calling (919) 814-0700.

There could be delays in response as many county government offices in affected counties will not be able to reopen until utilities are restored.

The state board said it would provide special emergency packages for counties without internet access. These kits, essentially “poll offices in a box,” allow county election workers to continue their election preparations, including voter registration and processing absentee ballot applications, until services are restored.

At an emergency meeting Monday, the NCBOE passed a resolution giving the 25 counties in the Helene federal disaster area the flexibility to postpone legally required meetings to accommodate returned mail-in ballots. Those meetings were scheduled to begin Tuesday in all 100 counties.

Delays in postal voting

Postal service has been suspended at dozens of post offices in western North Carolina. Combined with the fact that many mailboxes in Helene homes were washed away or damaged, this is likely to have a significant impact on postal voting in the area.

Tips and advice for areas affected by Helene

• A voter who has requested a postal vote is not obliged to take part in this election. You can simply discard it and vote in person during the early in-person voting period or on Election Day.

• Voters displaced by the storm who want to temporarily live elsewhere can request a mail-in ballot and have it sent to their temporary address. The easiest way to request an absentee ballot is online through the North Carolina Absentee Voting Portal. A voter who has already requested a ballot but cannot receive it at the address where it was supposed to be delivered should contact their county’s election authority to have the original ballot destroyed and a new one mailed to their temporary residence let.