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Election officials in Georgia, North Carolina and Florida say voters will be safe despite the devastating storms from Hurricane Helen, which left power, water and cell phone service out in some cases. We are working quickly to allow early voting.
Possible solutions for affected counties in the three states that could sway the White House’s decision include adding more polling places, extending early voting and making it easier to drop off mail-in ballots. .
“We don’t have power. We don’t have water. We have limited cell phone service, so our concern right now is delays in shipping absentee ballots and getting mail,” Augusta said. said W. Travis Doss Jr., executive director of the Richmond County Board of Elections. Georgia told CNN. Doss said some of the county’s 43 polling places “may become unusable.”
“This damage goes far beyond flood damage,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections. “Some polling places may be inaccessible due to road damage. Some polling places may have fallen trees.”
The U.S. Postal Service says postal service has been suspended in a wide range of zip codes in three states, creating new challenges for delivering and receiving mail-in ballots.
“We are working diligently with our partners at USPS,” Travis Hart, chairman of the Florida Department of Elections Supervisors, told CNN. “Some of the facilities were also damaged, and some were completely washed away.”
Election officials are confident they will have no problems getting the necessary support.
As the state Legislature resumes its session, Bell and his team are considering various requests the Legislature might make, but Bell believes it’s worth extending absentee ballot acceptance by a few days. He said he did not know whether it was the case, and said: She is more worried about the “isolated community” and is unable to send or receive emails.
Bell said he is considering “a number of different options that we believe would be more beneficial,” such as allowing voters to drop off their ballots on Election Day rather than just dropping them off at early voting locations or on Election Day. I have identified it,” he said.
Mr. Hart will work closely with the Florida Governor’s Office to assist elections offices with weather emergencies similar to those they received during Hurricane Ian in 2022 and Hurricane Michael in 2018. We are trying to obtain an executive order to do so.
Hart said his team is calling for consolidating polling places and opening vote centers so people don’t have to vote in precincts that may be damaged, closed or inaccessible. He said there was. They also plan to request that early voting be extended until Election Day in Florida, where early voting typically runs until the previous Sunday.
In North Carolina, Bell is working with the state Office of Emergency Management and the North Carolina National Guard to consider setting up pop-up voting locations if needed.
“During Hurricane Dorian, voting was actually done from tents erected by the National Guard, making it possible to vote in Hyde County,” Bell said. “We will take the necessary steps to ensure that the vote takes place,” he said.
Bell added, “We will also consider whether to go to the board and ask the board to consider further consolidation of polling places, in which case we may extend the use of early voting facilities. Because we know that early voting facilities are usually larger and can accommodate more people to vote.” ”
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement that counties in the state that are required to move early voting locations will be able to do so through Georgia’s “My Voter Page” website, local radio stations, He said he would notify voters through television and social media.
Raffensperger said his office is working to “ensure the safety of election workers in affected counties, that equipment is intact and safe, and that early voting locations will be operational by the time early voting begins.” We are working hard to confirm this.”
Another potential concern is the number of poll workers available, given the circumstances, especially if the workload is likely to increase.
Bell said the state board is considering creating emergency powers to expand who can be a poll worker in a precinct.
Hart agreed, saying, “Currently, Florida law requires you to be registered in your county to be a poll worker. But we are waiving that rule. It might allow people from neighboring counties or counties who want to work in elections to cross county lines and help counties in desperate need.”
Election officials and outside observers say the integrity of the election should not be a concern.
Chris Mann, research director at the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research, said Tuesday that North Carolina’s mail-in voting system has a lot of “resiliency” built into it and that some of the challenges from Hurricane Helen have been mitigated. He said that it should be.
“All of these ballots have tracking capabilities…North Carolina is taking full advantage of that,” Mann said.
Thanks to the tracking system, election officials can invalidate mail-in ballots delivered to homes that have already been vandalized, Mann said. A new mail-in ballot can then be issued to the voter and sent to their current location.
“All they have to do is contact their county board of elections and ask them to destroy their current ballot. The spoiler is to delete the ballot so it doesn’t get counted. , which means reissuing ballots in new locations,” said Paul Cox, general counsel for the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
Bell added that the state’s tracking system, BallotTrax, will help North Carolina voters determine where their ballot is and whether it was lost in transit. She said the processes in place will help ensure ballots are counted correctly and associated with the right people, and voters should trust the election process.
“The people involved in elections are as resilient as the people who live in the mountains,” Bell said.
This story has been updated with additional details.