Following the destruction of last month’s Hurricane Helene and this week’s Hurricane Milton, officials in Florida and North Carolina are working to change voting procedures to help voters cast ballots a little easier.
Efforts from North Carolina officials include giving county election boards the authority to change scheduled days, times, and sites for early voting and to use polling places in other counties if their own has been impacted.
The state’s elections board voted unanimously to approve the emergency measures for 13 western counties that were the hardest hit by Helene, though state lawmakers expanded those rules to 25 counties.
Among other changes include allowing any voter in an affected county who can’t get to their voting precinct to cast their ballot at a different county’s precinct.
On Wednesday, lawmakers in North Carolina also approved legislation to give $5 million to the State Board of Elections for post-storm administration costs.
In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed an executive order after Hurricane Helene hit the state to address potential voting disruptions in the hardest-hit counties.
The order will allow for election supervisors to consolidate voting centers or relocate them to a different site if their voting precinct has been destroyed. The order also eases some of the restrictions that the state has for mail-in ballots.
However, even with the change in regulations and rules, some experts warn that voters may still not cast their ballots this November if they are still recovering from the storms.
“If your basement is flooded, or if you are displaced and you have to go live with your grandma in another state ... voting is going to drop down your list of priorities,” Kevin Morris, a senior research fellow and voting policy scholar with the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program, shared with Axios.
As for the candidates, former President Donald Trump, who staunchly disagreed with changing voting rules for the 2020 election when the country was facing the COVID-19 pandemic, has appeared more sympathetic now, saying during a town hall this week that they’re “trying to make it convenient for them to [vote], but they just lost their house.”
Trump’s team has donated supplies and food and has been fundraising to help those affected by the storms, a campaign official reported.
On the other side of the ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris’s team in North Carolina says it spent more than $30,000 on voter relief efforts in the state. Her team also shared with Axios that similar efforts are underway in Florida.
“We are working closely with our legal and voter-protection teams and the N.C. Democratic Party to ensure that every eligible voter is able to safely make their voices heard,” Dory MacMillan, spokesperson for Harris’ North Carolina team, said in a statement.