Battleground North Carolina sees strong early voting, despite obstacles created by Helene

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Turnout for early in-person voting started strong Thursday in the presidential battleground of North Carolina, including in mountainous areas where Hurricane Helene destroyed property and upended lives but apparently did not dampen a fierce desire to participate in elections.

More than 400 early voting sites opened as scheduled for the 17-day period, including all but four of the 80 sites previously anticipated for the 25 western counties hardest hit by the storm, said State Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell. She credited election workers — including volunteers impacted by the severe weather — emergency management officials and utility crews.

“I know that thousands of North Carolinians lost so much in this storm. Their lives will never be the same after this tragedy,” Brinson Bell told reporters in Asheville, the region's population center and a city devastated by the historic rainfall. “But one thing Helene did not take from western North Carolinians is the right to vote in this important election.”

Helene's arrival in the Southeast decimated remote towns throughout Appalachia and killed at least 246 people, with a little over half of the storm-related deaths in North Carolina. It was the deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since Katrina in 2005.

Several dozen who died were from Buncombe County, where Asheville is located. Thousands in western North Carolina still lack power or clean running water.

But that didn't stop many from voting. About 60 people — most bundled up in jackets, hats and gloves for the chilly weather — lined up to cast a ballot at the South Buncombe Library in Asheville before the polls even opened at 9 a.m.

Among them was 77-year-old Joyce Rich, who said Helene made early voting more urgent for her. Rich said while her house was largely spared by the storm, she and her husband still need to do some work on it. Meanwhile, family members who don’t have power or water access are coming over to take showers.

“We decided, let’s just get it finished,” Rich said. “You never know what’s going to happen.”

In Polk County, an area along the South Carolina border that was also hit by Helene, the parking lot of the county elections board was so packed with early voters that an election worker was forced to direct traffic. To access the site, some people parked blocks away and walked down sidewalks still covered with small branches and other storm debris.

Voter Joanne Hemmingway, who spent 10 days without power in her home near Tryon, had always planned to vote early, and was thankful that election officials were able to still pull it off after Helene struck.

“Not having it? That never crossed my mind,” Hemmingway said.

In adjoining Henderson County, officials closed lanes on a major highway to help move election traffic, and golf carts ferried voters from an auto parts store parking lot to the county's lone voting site.

There, voter Michael Dirks said he found himself looking forward to voting after Helene, figuring it would be an important milestone in “getting back to normal, whatever that might turn out to be.”

In Wake County, home to the capital, Raleigh, several polling locations listed wait times of at least one hour late Thursday afternoon.

Thursday's sunny weather likely helped to make turnout “terrific” statewide, according to Brinson Bell, who suggested that the state could break a record for first-day early voting in all 100 counties.

Early in-person voting continues through Nov. 2. More than 3.6 million ballots — 65% of all ballots — were cast during early voting in the 2020 general election. In the 2016 election, 62% of all ballots were cast during early in-person voting.

Officials in the 25 counties affected by the storm were still evaluating Election Day polling locations, with the “vast majority” expected to be available to voters, Brinson Bell said. So far, officials have requested tents for about a dozen sites, she added.

Traditional absentee voting in North Carolina began a few weeks ago, with over 67,000 completed ballots turned in so far, election officials said. People displaced by Helene are being allowed to drop off their absentee ballot at any early voting site in the state.

The importance of early voting wasn’t lost upon the presidential campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

On Thursday, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz campaigned in the state, including an event in Durham with former President Bill Clinton. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley and others appeared on the “Team Trump Bus Tour” when it resumed Thursday in Rutherford County, which was among the hardest-hit areas.

The North Carolina ballot also includes races for governor, attorney general and several other statewide positions. All U.S. House and General Assembly seats also are up for reelection.

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Collins reported from Columbus and Hendersonville, North Carolina. Associated Press writers Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina; Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta; and Christine Fernando in Chicago contributed to this report.