With North Carolina set to be one of the states that will decide the election in November - with Trump holding just a 1.4% lead across an average of latest polls - there were widespread concerns over the impact of Hurricane Helene on voting efforts.
And with early voting set to begin in North Carolina on October 17, the state's Board of Elections has unanimously approved a bipartisan resolution that will move in-person early and Election Day voting locations for the residents in the counties hardest hit by the hurricane.
This resolution applies to Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Transylvania, Watauga, and Yancey counties - with all but two counties favoring Trump over Biden in 2020.
According to ABC 11, Board of Elections General Counsel Paul Cox said it was important to hand control of the logistics over to counties.
Additionally, we know there's going to be challenges regarding maintaining the poll workers at these voting sites, both early voting and election day. So what this resolution allows is county boards, by a bipartisan majority vote, to appoint election officials who are registered in other counties, to appoint emergency election day assistance, to re-assign poll workers to different locations.
Meanwhile, Chair of the Board of Elections Alan Hirsch said there are two major issues for the state to address. 👇
One is to ensure that our citizens have access and that no one is denied the right to vote because of these logistical problems. And second, that we maintain the integrity to ensure that the count is correct.
Michele Woodhouse, NCGOP Chair in the state's 11th Congressional District, said that the Board of Elections "has done a great job."
"Every county has done an incredible job. No ballots were lost. No ballots were damaged. No machines were damaged," she added.
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