NC election officials vow to ensure voters can cast their ballot amid Helene’s devastation

The State Board of Elections offers guidance to voters in areas devastated by Hurricane Helene. “We do not have all the answers right now, but we are diligently working to figure them out.”

Karen Brinson Bell worked half of her life in western North Carolina and knows it in her bones. 

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene — which wiped entire communities off North Carolina’s map, destroyed roads and bridges, killed an as-yet-unknown number of people, and cut off survivors from the outside world —she was devastated by the footage she’s seen.  

“I’ve driven the roads that no longer exist. I’ve frequented the restaurants and shops that are washed away and I’ve likely picked out a Christmas tree from a farm where the trees are uprooted,” Brinson Bell, the executive director of the North Carolina Board of Elections, said in a press call on Tuesday. 

“My first job in elections administration was with the state board as a field support specialist to the 12 Western most counties,” she said. 

Those counties she knows so well took the brunt of Helene’s force. 

In what could be the most important election of three generations, Helene has brought a formidable challenge for elections officials, many of whom are themselves directly affected by the storm’s fury.

But Brinson Bell made clear that she and other election officials across the state were resolved to help these communities — which stretch across nearly 30 counties and thousands of square miles — exercise their right to vote even under difficult circumstances.

“Mountain people are strong and the election people who serve them are resilient and tough too,” she said, citing the electoral response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This storm is like nothing we’ve seen in our lifetimes in western North Carolina,” Brinson Bell said. “The destruction is unprecedented and this level of uncertainty this close to Election Day is daunting.”

But, she said, the board, which has won several national awards for its stewardship of elections, will rise to the occasion.

“Our top priorities are to ensure the safety of our county boards of elections and poll workers, and to ensure every eligible voter who wants to cast a ballot in this election can do so,” Brinson Bell said. “We’ve battled through hurricanes and tropical storms and still held safe and secure elections and we will do everything in our power to do so again.”

She continued: “We are taking this situation one step at a time. This will be an ongoing process now until Election Day and even after Election Day. We do not have all the answers right now, but we are diligently working to figure them out.”

Lots of questions. Some answers. 

There are 25 counties in the disaster zone and more than 1.2 million registered voters live in them.

Election Day is in November but the voting process has already begun. After an unrelated court-ordered delay, the state began sending out absentee ballots last week to those who requested them, including more than 37,180 ballots that were already mailed to voters in the 25 counties most affected by the storm.

Of those ballots sent, only 635 had been returned and accepted before Helene hit.

What do voters in these areas do if they are waiting for their ballot but their post office is now gone? Or their road? Or their house?

The main voter registration period ends on Oct. 11, after which people can only register in person during the early voting period. 

What do North Carolinians wishing to register do if they have no internet to access the online registration form? What happens if a county’s early voting site has been destroyed?

What happens if the Election Day voting site has been destroyed?

What are these voters to do?

Election officials may not have all the answers, but they do have some, Brinson Bell said, and they are working hard on the others. 

So here is some guidance from election officials for voters in the areas most affected by Hurricane Helene. 

Where to start?

The Board created a webpage – NCSBE.gov/Helene  – where they have vowed to put all relevant Helene-election information, including much of what you are about to read here. One of the most important pieces of guidance, they said, is that whether voters were affected by the storm or not, they should check their registration status using the voter search tool to make sure it is current and accurate. 

Ten election offices remain closed because of the hurricane, election officials said, but there were no reports of any damage to voting equipment or supplies.

And all election and poll workers are accounted for.

“We are focused now on getting those offices back up and running so that absentee ballot requests can be processed and voter registrations can be entered into the system,” Brinson Bell said.

The process will be laborious, and there is a lot left to figure out on a suddenly tight deadline, she said, but there is still time.

“As county offices get back up and running, they will begin to assist early voting sites and Election Day polling places to see the extent of the damage and which facilities won’t be available. Once we know this information, we can better determine a path forward on how to provide in-person voting.”

The elections staff has a history of excellence, she said, and ensuring a safe and accurate vote whether amid storms or pandemics, and she was confident the state-wide effort would do so again.

Will there still be an election?

Absolutely.

“There are many things that can be disruptive, but we still figure out how to proceed,” Brinson Bell said, citing the COVID-19 and Hurricane Dorian as just the most recent examples. 

“We have longstanding processes in North Carolina to secure our elections,” she said, “and those processes don’t change because of a storm.”

Election officials would work under state law to ensure that the registered voters who want to vote can, and that those votes are counted and secure.

“Matter of fact, it probably makes us even more diligent to ensure that those are carried out properly,” she said.

What if my voter ID was lost or damaged?

Voters will still need to provide a Voter ID to vote, whether voting in-person or by mail, but state law expressly lists natural disasters as an approved exception. 

If your voter ID has been damaged or lost because of the storm, election officials say, you can fill out the ID exception form. And while ballots cast with the exception form are usually initially treated as provisional ballots, that won’t apply in this case, Brinson Bell said.

“Because [natural disasters are] a permissible reason by state law on that exception form, the county boards of elections will accept that,” she said.

If you are voting by mail and have your ID, include a photocopy in your returned ballot. If you don’t have it, you can still fill out the voter ID exception form. 

What if my absentee ballot was lost?

• Brinson Bell said that election officials are working to determine how many ballots have been returned and how many are in the boards’ many distribution centers waiting, but now unable to be sent out to voters.  
• If you have been displaced by the storm, and have not yet requested a ballot, you can do so through the regular absentee ballot portal and have it sent to your new location.
• If you have been displaced and have already requested a ballot, but had not received it, contact your county board of elections office to “spoil” your current ballot and reissue a new one to your new location.
• If you already tried to return your ballot, you can check its status through the state’s tracking portal. And if you are military or otherwise overseas, you can actually cast your ballot through the regular ballot request portal.
• It is unclear if the post office can deliver ballots to a shelter or other mass temporary dwelling, but Cardinal & Pine has asked the board for clarification. We will update this story to provide the answer as soon as we get one.

How can I register to vote

• Friday Oct. 11 is the deadline to register to vote or change your voter registration to a new location. (Registration is also available in person during the Early Voting period, see below.)
• You can register to vote online through the Department of Motor Vehicles website until Oct. 11 if you have an NC driver’s license or other accepted ID. You can also print the registration form through the website, fill it out, sign it, and deliver it to a board of elections office.
• You can register and vote at the same time during the in-person Early Voting period, which runs from Thursday Oct. 17 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 2. You’ll need an acceptable form of voter ID (more on that in a minute) and a document showing your address.

What if I want to register but can’t get back to my home before Election Day? What address should I use?

You have to have lived at your residence for at least 30 days before an election in order to vote using that address — that’s this Sunday, Oct. 6. But there is some guidance for people either temporarily or permanently displaced:

• If you move before Oct. 6 with no intent to return, or if you’re not sure, register using your new location.
• If you move after Oct. 6, even with no plans to return, register using your prior residence. 
• If you are moving only temporarily and plan to return to your home, use your home address to register.

Will early voting sites still be available?

“It’s really just too soon to know,” Brinson Bell said, “but it’s our intent to open early voting in all 100 counties [as scheduled].”

The early voting period begins on Oct. 17. The runway may be short, Brinson Bell said, but she thinks it’s long enough.

“Luckily we still have some days between now and October the 17th, and I know these folks, I know the questions they’ve already been asking. They are determined to see this happen.”

How it happens, and where, is still to be determined.

Paul Cox, NCBOE’s general counsel, said that the approach in each county would be different, depending on the circumstances.

“There’s a 25-county area that’s in the federal disaster declaration, but every county situation is quite different,” Cox said.

Some counties would be able to utilize all their regular sites, he said, while facilities in others may have too much damage.

“So it’s going to be very specific to the counties that are in that situation,” he said.

Still, Brinson Bell added, the state has practice and knows what to do if needed.

“What we do know is when we’ve been able to respond in past storms, be it from flooding or other situations,” she said.

Hurricane Dorian wiped out some voting sites in Hyde County in early September of 2019.

The North Carolina National Guard and the state’s emergency management department helped election officials set up tents in parking lots near the damaged facilities, and voting took place without incident.

“We will take the measures necessary to ensure that we can deliver voting,” Brinson Bell said.

“We anticipate having a better idea in the next few days and hopefully by the end of the week as to whether we need to take actions with the state board, the legislature, or just work with our emergency management officials to do temporary locations.”

What county boards remain closed?

The board updates this list every day, but as of publication time on Wednesday, these were the offices that have not yet reopened:

• Avery Co.
• Buncombe 
• Burke Co.
• Henderson Co.
• Madison Co.
• Mitchell Co.
• Polk Co.
• Transylvania Co.
• Watauga Co.
• Yancey Co.

Can the state adjust some voting deadlines?

Perhaps. 

But it is still too early in the process for that, Brinson Bell said. 

The state board of elections on Monday unanimously voted to allow county boards the flexibility to reschedule a required meeting scheduled for Tuesday to review absentee ballot submissions. 

The board could take further actions as well, Brinson Bell said, and would further consider next steps after it assessed over the next few days the full scope of the damage and potential constraints.

Election officials, for instance, were still in the process of determining how many absentee ballots were affected, she said.

“We certainly have voters who are going to be able to vote by mail, but we know that there are voters in some communities that are isolated and aren’t going to be receiving mail or able to send out mail.”

Once they had a better sense of things, she said, they would provide further guidance. 

The General Assembly will return next week, too, and if election officials need to make requests for further funding or for any special circumstances tweaks to the state deadlines, they would consider it, Brinson Bell said.

State law now says that all absentee ballots must be returned to the board by 7:30 on Election Day in order for them to count. (The Republican controlled General Assembly voted last year to end the previous 3-day grace period, arguing that responsible voters would be able to get their ballots in by Election Day.)

Reporters asked Brinson Bell if the board was considering asking the General Assembly to re-implement the grace period for counties affected by the storm. 

She did not rule it out, but said it was still too early to know what the next couple of weeks would look like.

“There’s many paths that we could take and so we are just trying to determine what would be most beneficial to the voters,” she said.

Will there be enough poll workers? 

Brinson Bell said she is confident that the boards will have all the resources they need to conduct the election.

“I think it’s too soon to say that this is going to have a negative impact on the number of workers and create lines or anything of that nature,” she said.

“If what we saw during COVID is any indication, North Carolinians really do answer the call, … [and] I imagine that this is going to be another one of those times.”

One field specialist walked five miles across the disaster zone to be able to attend a meeting on Monday, Brison Bell said.

“We’ll have some amazing stories by the time we complete this election of people’s sacrifice and selflessness,” she said.

“I’ve been overwhelmed and not surprised by the offers to help from county boards of elections in parts of the state not affected by the storm to help their colleagues in western North Carolina and I know that support will continue.”