Hurricane fallout threatens to hinder voting

The fallout from a pair of deadly hurricanes threatens to roil voting in the Southeast with complications for election officials and residents alike in states key to this year’s presidential race.  

Hurricane Helene battered North Carolina, Georgia and Florida late last month, throwing up new hurdles for election officials amid power outages, road closures and mail disruptions. Days later, Hurricane Milton tore through the Sunshine State, compounding Helene’s devastation.  

The dual hurricanes already have prompted changes to voting procedures as officials try to address hard-hit areas and give voters more flexibility in casting their ballots, with early voting set to kick off this week in North Carolina and Georgia — two critical battleground states — followed by Florida later this month.

"In some of these more rural locations, the roads are wiped out,” said Jason Roberts, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “They have no way, no good way, to get in and out of these places. So sure, I've got a polling place I can go to, but can I get there? So I want to get an absentee ballot. Can it be delivered to me? Can I get it to the post office? Those are the questions that I think are so hard to answer for many people out there.”

In North Carolina, the state board of elections approved a slate of emergency measures last week including tweaks to voting rules that give affected voters more time to request and deliver absentee ballots and allow voters to turn in absentee ballots at offices in counties other than their own. State lawmakers expanded those election alternations to 25 of the state's 100 counties.  

County boards can also modify early voting sites and timelines, with certain conditions. In Watauga County, for example, early voting sites will now be open on the weekend to give voters more flexibility. In-person early voting starts in the Tar Heel State this Thursday.

“To carry out this election through such devastation certainly is harder,” said Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the state board of elections, at a meeting last week. “But our processes are working, and we are just exercising what we know to do.”  

In Florida, where Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm along the Gulf Coast last week, hard-hit areas have been given more flexibility for shifting polling sites and sending mail ballots.  

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) issued an executive order earlier this month allowing election supervisors to consolidate or relocate voting centers and to loosen restrictions for mail-in ballot requests, among other provisions. Early voting kicks off in the Sunshine State on Oct. 26.  

But as officials work to right the ship after the hurricanes, some advocates have pressed them to take further action.  

In South Carolina, a federal judge extended the voter registration window by roughly a week after Helene hit. But two federal judges last week rejected separate requests for deadline tweaks in Florida and Georgia, where the voter registration deadline passed last Monday. 

Floridians “should not have to juggle fleeing for their lives and protecting their property with fulfilling their civic duties,” said Cecile Scoon and Debbie Chandler, co-presidents of the League of Women Voters of Florida, in a joint statement blasting the decision.  

Broadly, though, experts are optimistic that states in the Southeast are ready to handle the election, even as they navigate the disruptions. If voters want to cast their ballots, there will be avenues available to them.  

“The machines are there. The ballots are there. That’s all going to be fine,” Roberts said.  

The real problem, experts say, is whether Americans scrambling in the hurricanes’ aftermath will have the bandwidth to check voting off their to-do list. 

"The issue is, when your life has been turned upside-down, maybe you've lost your lost friends and loved ones, you've lost your home, you've lost access to electricity, water, cell service,” Roberts added. “My question is: How high of a priority is voting going to be for these individuals?” 

Veronica Degraffenreid, the senior manager of strategic partnerships in the elections and government program at the Brennan Center for Justice, echoed this, arguing that politics might take a back seat to “the human factor.” 

“The work that we have to do is to make sure that people don't feel discouraged from voting because they don't know how they're going to do it,” she said, adding that any voter discouragement shouldn’t come from misunderstandings around the ballot box. 

It’s up to democracy-focused organizations and local officials to provide updated, accessible information on voting at a county level, she said. But that, too, can be difficult in crisis.  

“It’s often challenging to reach voters during these times,” said Kevin Wagner, a political science professor at Florida Atlantic University. “Traditional modes of communication are not available … [and] voters aren’t as receptive to political messaging during times when they’re focused on their families and their homes.” 

Vice President Harris and former President Trump have made recent stops in hurricane-hit states as they battle in a razor-thin race for the White House this fall. And in key battlegrounds, where the winner could be decided by a hair, the storms’ potential to depress turnout could tip the scales.  

In both North Carolina and Georgia, polling averages from The Hill and Decision Desk HQ put the rivals roughly 1 point apart.   

Roberts, the North Carolina professor, predicted “without a doubt” that the hurricane impacts will dampen turnout on Nov. 5, pointing to ongoing outages, destroyed homes and “wiped-out” roads in parts of the Tar Heel State.  

Wagner, the Florida Atlantic professor, wasn’t as certain. 

“It’s also possible that it could increase turnout as people look at the government’s response and then reach judgements about how they perceive the response and what it means to them,” Wagner said. 

With just weeks to go until Election Day and in a time of heightened scrutiny on election security, officials say they are working in overdrive to assure voters and ensure every ballot will be counted.  

"Are they pressed right now? Absolutely. Are they working really hard and overtime? Yep,” Degraffenreid said of election officials. But they’ll “make it work,” she promised. 

Election workers charged through unprecedented complications during the COVID-19 pandemic and bore legal challenges in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election — and Degraffenreid said the difficulties posed by the hurricanes will be no different.  

“The overwhelming message, I believe, is that these election officials will be ready for everything that may present itself, not only just right now, but leading up to Election Day,” Degraffenreid said.