As part of its response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene, the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) made more emergency changes to how elections will be administered in the 13 hardest-hit counties in the western part of the state.
The NCSBE passed a resolution in a meeting Monday expanding the capabilities of voters affected by the storm to cast their ballot in this year’s election, as well as the ability for county boards of elections to process ballots.
The resolution allows for 13 counties — Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Transylvania, Watauga and Yancey — to amend certain voting norms and operations, so long as they are passed by a bipartisan majority of the county board.
Despite the fact that 25 counties and three tribal areas in the state were included in an emergency declaration, the NCSBE is targeting 13 counties for the new tranche of emergency elections provisions as “infrastructure for elections administration and voters’ accessibility to polling places and mail service” has been “severely disrupted as a result of the disaster and will continue to be disrupted through the election.”
Improvements to election administration have been made over the last week, with NCSBE executive director Karen Brinson Bell noting that last week, 14 county offices in the area were unable to open, but now all offices are operational.
That being said, Bell noted that there are still significant challenges to administering an election in the region, and board member Stacy
