Early voting in several swing states could be affected by Hurricane Milton as key services attempt to recover from Hurricane Helene.
Extreme weather conditions in the South could prevent many Americans from casting early votes or mailing their postal ballots, especially in the swing states of Georgia and North Carolina—which are both hotly contested in the 2024 election.
Hurricane Helene has already damaged the infrastructure of both states, and officials are on a tight deadline to restore order amid confusion and devastation across the region, with another hurricane on the horizon.
Early in-person voting in North Carolina begins on October 17, with the deadline for requesting an absentee ballot closing on October 29. With a week to go before early in-person voting begins, many North Carolinians remain unable to access their homes, and the state’s Department of Public Safety has reported that more than 1,000 people are in temporary accommodation organized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
For Georgia, early in-person voting begins even earlier, on October 15. Governor Brian Kemp announced earlier this month that more than 40 counties across the state were affected by Helene.
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Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, led the response to the hurricanes’ effects on the electoral system, promising that early voting would continue as planned.
In a news conference on Monday, Bell said: “We have every intention of starting early voting as scheduled on Thursday, October 17, in all 100 counties. Early voting may look different than expected in some of the 13 hardest hit counties, but it will go on.
“We also will continue to work with emergency management officials, the county boards of elections and the U.S. Postal Service to ensure robust voting options for absentee and Election Day voting. Our commitment and support of elections in North Carolina, particularly for the affected counties, does not end with a single board meeting and resolution.
“Today’s actions allow us to move forward, adapt to the circumstances these counties and voters face, and ensure every eligible voter is able to cast their ballot in a safe and secure manner.”
Newsweek contacted the secretaries of state for Georgia and North Carolina, as well as representatives of the Democratic and Republican parties of each state, for comment via email.
Early voting is well underway across the U.S., with more than 3 million ballots having already been cast, NBC News reported. North Carolinians have already submitted more than 30,000 postal ballots, while Georgians have already submitted more than 1,000.
Former President Donald Trump maintains a small but steady lead in both states, which have 16 Electoral College votes each. He won North Carolina in both 2016 and 2020.
Winning both states would put him close to returning to the White House, but he must also win at least one of the Midwestern states that Joe Biden won in 2020 to secure a second term.
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