State elections officials approve measures to help voters affected by Helene

The North Carolina State Board of Elections approved a series of emergency measures Monday to enable victims of Hurricane Helene to vote in the 2024 election.

The provisions, approved with a 5-0 vote by the Democratic-majority state board, aim to help elections officials provide voting options for residents in western North Carolina affected by the storm. Helene left hundreds of people homeless, many without power and water, and more than 100 people dead in North Carolina.

The measures enable county boards of elections in 13 counties to modify early voting and Election Day voting sites and recruit additional poll workers to accommodate voters based on local conditions. They also allow election officials to continue to work with federal and state officials to provide election-related aid to disaster counties, including temporary voting facilities and restrooms, generators, and other needs.

The emergency measures are also designed to help North Carolina voters living temporarily elsewhere — inside or outside of the state or in disaster shelters. The measures cover elections in Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Transylvania, Watauga and Yancey counties.

“These measures were put in place to ensure the victims of Helene can vote in the upcoming election and provide election officials in the hardest hit areas the tools they need to conduct a secure election under extraordinarily difficult conditions,” Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said in a statement. “Just like the people of western North Carolina, election officials are resilient. We are determined to get the job done for our neighbors and friends in western North Carolina.”

The measures approved Monday allow county elections officials to:

• Modify approved early voting sites, days, and hours through a bipartisan, majority vote.
• Modify Election Day polling places by bipartisan, majority vote.
• Permit voters to cast ballots at county boards of elections offices on Election Day — in addition to early voting.
• Schedule “multipartisan assistance teams” to assist with absentee ballot requests and absentee voting at disaster shelters and other places where disaster relief is provided.

Voters would be allowed to:

• Request and receive an absentee ballot in person at their county board of elections until Nov. 4
• Drop off completed absentee ballots at Election Day polling places operated by the voters’ county board by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day.
• Let near relatives or legal guardians hand-deliver completed absentee ballots to another county board of elections in North Carolina or the State Board of Elections office by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day.

Voters can learn more about the measures approved Monday at NCSBE.gov/Helene.