State and local election authorities are frantically trying to organize an election in western North Carolina as the destruction, power outages, and lack of internet access are all happening while recovery efforts are in the wake of Hurricane Helene, which is less than 40 times ahead.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE), a Democrat-run organization with a record of undermining election integrity, convened last week to discuss the first steps needed to be taken to allow voters in the 25 regions and eastern Cherokee ethnic regions under a crisis charter.
Overall, 1, 275, 054 total registered voters in the 25 primarily red counties are affected by the disaster as of Oct. 1, with the largest number of affected affiliated voters ( more than 480, 000 ) being Republican. Another almost half a million voters are unconnected, and the place has just under 300, 000 listed Democrats, according to the NCSBE.
Some state election integrity officials are concerned that the NCSBE may use the crisis to evade laws governing the vote, even though some events and deviations from the norm will likely be required to allow the deep-red portion of the state to cast ballots.
” ]W] electronic know they can be counted on]to] use the incident as an excuse to disrupt any election integrity protection written into the law”, Jay DeLancy, senior director of the Voter Integrity Project of North Carolina, told The Federalist.
Election officials are not already aware of “any conditions where voting technology or printed votes were lost or damaged,” according to the NCSBE.
The NCSBE has outlined some original procedures for how voters in western North Carolina is vote. According to statistics from the NCSBE, voters in the state have the right to request absentee ballots for any reason and without justification, and those in the disaster charter area have already requested 38, 628 votes as of October 1. Thus far, only 998 have been returned, leaving a large percentage unaccounted for — and possibly lost in the wind.
But, NCSBE administration has stated that local voters who have requested a vote will not be required to use them and you cast an in-person ballot during the early voting period, which begins on October 17 and ends on November 2. On Election Day, they may even cast an online ballot.
According to the NCSBE, the U.S. Postal Service has suspended email distribution in “dozens” of post practices throughout the place, and several private mailboxes “likely have been washed away by the storm.” In a press conference on Tuesday, NCSBE General Counsel Paul Cox announced that citizens will now be able to request an absent vote in a new site, even if it is in a different state.
” If a person is displaced, they may request an absentee ballot get delivered to their new place”, Cox said. For instance, if someone had to move out of one of the hill counties and had moved to a different county, or even the same county, they could demand that their absentee ballot been delivered there.
” If the person has previously requested an absentee ballot, they may change where it’s going to be sent”, Cox continued, noting how, in this case, voters are to” email their county board of elections, ask them to spoil” — or successfully “delete”—” their present ballot”, and “reissue a ballot to]the ] new location”. He mentioned a webpage where voters can go to to request absentee ballots.
North Carolina state elections board typically needed to hold meetings to evaluate absentee ballots “beginning on the second Tuesday before Election Day,” but the NCSBE recently passed a draft resolution authorizing affected regions to postpone those sessions until “practicable.”
Citizens in the area are unlikely to be required to present a picture ID when casting ballots, which is typically required both for in-person and mail-in ballots. The NSCBE clarifies that” under state law,” voters who ca n’t provide an acceptable form of identification when voting may “fill out a Photo ID Exception Form,” noting that the ID requirement already includes a contingency that allows an exception for natural disasters that occur “within 100 days of an election.”
According to the NCSBE,” [V]oters in or from the 25 counties under a disaster declaration may use this exception to the picture ID condition if they are able to show Card when voting because of the natural catastrophe.”
The North Carolina Election Integrity Team’s president, Jim Womack, put together an action plan for state legislators that aimed to make sure that NCBSE’s response plan does not include any safeguards for election integrity.
“]T] he temporary rules applied for the disaster-stricken , counties must preserve the security , of the voting process with proper checks and oversight”, he wrote in the message to lawmakers obtained by The Federalist:
In order to preserve the integrity of the election, the following provisions should not be violated: ( 1 ) Continue to enforce voter ID ( make provisions for reissuing an ID for those who need it and otherwise require voters to use a provisional ballot where necessary ); ( 2 ) If equipment shortages persist, consider using paper ballots and using time-tested methods for hand counting the results; and ( 3 ) Do NOT increase the chances of corrupting the vote by extending the times and dates for accepting absentee ballots after 7: 30PM on election night.  ,  ,
In a statement to The Federalist, DeLancy concurred with Womack’s suggestions, but suggested adding “one more action… in light of the USPS decision to halt services.”
He suggested that the SBE should request that any county board of elections mail be rerouted to the State Board of Elections so they can process absentee ballots in a timely manner.  ,
In a press conference on Tuesday, NCSBE Executive Director Karen Bell stated that having adequate communication with poll workers will be difficult because of limited cell service and other means of communication with county officials. Bell added that while nothing has yet been decided, the NCSBE may soon be considering whether enforcing emergency authority to increase the number of poll workers is appropriate. Bell made the suggestion in the briefing that it was” too soon to say” whether the situation will cause “negative effects” on issues like” the number of]poll workers,” but he also expressed confidence in North Carolinians in the affected area and their ability to “answer the call.” ( In his proposal, Womack recommended that North Carolina Gov. Republican Party candidate Roy Cooper might use North Carolina National Guard personnel to assist with the transition and to send trained workers to the western region of the state.
The NCSBE has “election offices in a box” tool kits county officials can use to set up operations, including absentee ballot request processing and voter registrations, but some counties are currently closed or have limited access to because of the hurricane’s damage. As new information emerges, including county office closures, the NCSBE created a separate page for voters to be “updated routinely.” The NCSBE also indicated it” will provide regular updates through media interviews, press releases, ]and ] social media posts”.
Helene is not the first hurricane to have an impact on a North Carolina election. Although both Hurricanes Dorian and Matthew in 2016 had an impact on state election operations, they were both Atlantic Coast storms and did not affect the deep red mountain region, which is not typically affected by storms of this magnitude. However, both of these events have had an impact on the state’s election operations.
Bell claimed on the press conference that she recalls having polling places in tents and other temporary accommodations as a result of previous storms, and that she was implying that such options are not on the table in 2024 either.
For more election news and updates, visit , electionbriefing.com.
Breccan F. Thies is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered issues of education and culture for Breitbart News and the Washington Examiner. He is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow and holds a degree from the University of Virginia. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.