United States – North Carolina, one of the main swing states in the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election, will go to the polls on Thursday, just a few weeks after Hurricane Helene struck the state’s western part, leaving many without electricity, drinkable water, or cell signal.
Voter Challenges Post-Storm
Tina Veitch, 49, an independent graphic designer, reported that the road leading to the family house in Burnsville was washed away by the storm. One of the things that has kept her in the region instead of going to her family home in Florida is to exercise her right to vote, as reported by Reuters.
She said on Wednesday that the process to vote by absentee ballot was too arduous, adding: “The number of hoops you have to jump through to just do it was not worth it … So we were like, ‘We’re just going to stay ’til tomorrow at least and vote.'”
North Carolina could therefore prove decisive, pundits claim, in the contest between the incumbent Democratic vice president Kamala Harris and the former president Donald Trump because the state’s votes were potentially ‘swing’ votes. Surveys indicate that it will be a very close contest, and only several marginal states will prove decisive.
Hurricane Helene, which led to over 200 fatalities and cost billions of dollars in six different states, raised queries on how it might affect voter turnout.
A Tight Race in a Swing State
It is a fact that the counties most affected are both Republican and Democratic areas. For example, Buncombe County with Asheville voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 election, while Yancey County preferred Trump.
It is a tie between Trump and Harris for the North Carolina votes; 48% support for Trump in state and national polls, while Harris has 47.6% votes, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Election Preparations Amid Recovery Efforts
North Carolina’s state elections board has spent weeks reviewing the effects of the storm on the voting places. Thursday, seventy-six early voting sites will be available to the people in the 25 western North Carolina counties on the federal disaster list, as reported by Reuters.
That is down from 80 before the storm, which was planned.
In its report, North Carolina stated that early voting has been the popular method to vote during both the latest and previous general elections.