(The Center Square) – Election Day preparations are continuing smoothly in North Carolina, even as the state recovers from the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, State Board of Elections officials say.
After the first week of early voting, more than 2.3 million voters have cast their ballots in the state, a 30% turnout of registered voters with 11 days remaining until Election Day.
“We have seen some lines in some parts of the state since early voting began, but, overall, this has been an extremely smooth first half of the early voting period,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections at a press conference on Friday morning. “This is a testament to the preparations by the dedicated election professionals across our state and the dedicated poll workers who staff these voting sites in service to their neighbors and community.”
Bell emphasized the importance of voters continuing to submit their ballots, especially absentee ballots, which must be received by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day.
While over 400 early voting sites are currently open, local boards of elections are also gearing up to open more than 2,600 Election Day polling stations statewide.
The 25 counties in western North Carolina hardest hit by the hurricane will continue to receive additional support to ensure that polling stations are open.
“Thanks to all of the emergency workers, law enforcement officials and volunteers, conditions are improving,” Bell said. “At one point we thought we would need as many as 15 secure tents in the disaster areas. As of this morning, we believe there will be only a need for seven.”
Patrick Gannon, communications director for the board, added that the board and counties are continuing to work together to solidify Election Day plans.
“It’s changing pretty much daily where sites are coming back online and tents are no longer needed, but I think we have a pretty good handle on that now as to which sites will need tents,” he said.
On Friday morning, North Carolina governor Roy Cooper signed a $644 million aid package to help with storm recovery. Part of that legislation included requirements to ensure that there are enough early voting sites open in the hard-hit counties.
“The bill that was passed yesterday regarding the number of early voting sites created a ratio of one site per 30,000 voters,” said Bell.
That requirement affected only two counties: McDowell and Henderson.
“I’ll emphasize that, as we came into the start of early voting, there were 80 sites planned in these 25 disaster-affected counties, and we were able to open 76 of the 80 planned early voting sites,” Bell said. “They have been operating throughout the early voting period and serving voters. So, these additional sites … we will work with the counties to get those up and running.”
Bell also spoke about the quick timeline that this requirement calls for, especially as the counties are already well into early voting.
