By Barbara Rodriguez/Originally published by The 19th
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In the aftermath of deadly back-to-back hurricanes in the Southeastern part of the country, residents contending with catastrophic damage are now also grappling with what it could mean for their ability to cast a ballot in the upcoming election.
As the first reports emerged Thursday of Hurricane Milton’s damage to parts of central Florida, election administrators were already working to keep voting as accessible as possible in states hit by Hurricane Helene about a week and a half earlier. It is too soon to know the full scope of Milton’s impact, though officials have warned for days of possible life-threatening conditions.
Both storms come immediately prior to a historic presidential election, and the ramifications of the recovery process could impact voting plans for millions of Americans, some of whom are dealing with realities like damaged or destroyed homes, displacement, power outages and limited access to clean water.
“I think we know that election officials aren’t new to crises,” said Rachel Orey, associate director of elections for the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank whose policy advocacy includes working with election workers to address voting accessibility.
“After 2020, election officials had to administer an election under a global pandemic, and particularly in states like North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, election officials have had contingencies in place for months, if not years, on how to respond to hurricanes,” Orey said, adding: “It sets them up well to respond quickly and efficiently and connect voters with the resources that they need.”
This is not the first time that severe weather has hit the country before a major election. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy made landfall in New Jersey and New York as a powerful tropical storm about one week before that year’s presidential election. In 2018, Hurricane Michael was recorded as a Category 5 storm when it hit the Florida Panhandle region a few weeks before that year’s midterms.
Hurricane Helene made landfall in late September on Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm. Its estimated 500 miles of destruction in six states has been linked to more than 200 deaths. Hurricane Milton, which at one point in its rapid formation was recorded as a Category 5 storm, made landfall as a Category 3 on Wednesday night along Florida’s Tampa Bay area, bringing heavy rains and flooding.
Election administrators make plans for scenarios where polling sites or related facilities are damaged or unusable due to flooding or power outages, said David Becker, an election expert and executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research (CEIR), a nonpartisan nonprofit that works with election officials.
“Oftentimes election officials have to find alternate locations for voting, and then they do that,” he said on a call Wednesday with reporters. “And then they notify their voters the best they can.”
When Karen B. Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, held a media briefing at the start of the week, she ran through a list of newly approved emergency measures aimed at ensuring residents can vote in the aftermath of Helene, which battered the western part of the state last month. (Later in the week, state lawmakers expanded authority for emergency election services to additional counties.)
Among the measures, which a bipartisan elections board passed unanimously: Give officials in impacted counties more flexibility to move or consolidate polling places; recruit poll workers from less impacted counties; and get more information to voters housed in shelters and elsewhere.
Bell also made a commitment to keep early voting, set to start on Oct. 17, on schedule in the state.
“Put simply, these measures will help eligible voters in the affected areas cast their ballot either in person or by mail, and they will help county boards of elections in western North Carolina administer this election under extraordinarily difficult conditions,” she said.
Across the South, voting rights advocacy organizations and other groups have also asked statewide officials to make more voting accommodations, including extending voter registration deadlines. The results have been mixed.
In South Carolina, a judge extended voter registration deadlines by more than a week amid recovery efforts, after a request by the South Carolina Democratic Party.
In Georgia and Florida, several civic engagement organizations made similar requests to statewide officials, which were rejected.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who declined to extend the state’s voter registration deadline and defended that decision, took action in the aftermath of Helene. In early October, he signed an executive order to give election officials in some of the most impacted counties more flexibility in administering elections. That includes authority to move or combine polling locations and expand poll worker opportunities to address any staffing shortages.
Brad Ashwell is state director in Florida for All Voting is Local, a national organization that advocates for voting accessibility, particularly for marginalized communities. While Ashwell gave the governor credit for the executive order, he also expressed disappointment that DeSantis did not extend the voter registration deadline. Ashwell also believes more action can be taken to account for issues that voters may face in the aftermath of the storms, including accessing public transportation to go vote and having reliable Internet to get accurate and up-to-date information about where and how to vote.
“It just feels like they’re not looking at the lay of the land holistically when assessing barriers,” Ashwell said.
Andrea Hailey is the CEO of Vote.org, a national organization that provides information about voting across the country. This week, the group sent emails and texts to residents in North Carolina and South Carlina about changes to their election rules following Helene. She noted that voters in Florida and elsewhere in the affected areas have time to vote by mail, and her group has additional information on its website to answer questions.
“The most important thing to keep in mind if you or your loved ones have been impacted by Helene or Milton is you don’t have to choose between your physical safety and your right to vote — you can still make your voice heard in this election,” Hailey said in an email.
Becker said the storms demonstrate the importance, from a security and accessibility perspective, of early and mail-in voting.
“This is really important, because if anything happens, like a hurricane, like a weather event, like a power outage … anything like that, it gives the counties and voters an opportunity to mitigate against that and be resilient against that,” he said.
Becker also added that Americans who are concerned about a lost or damaged ballot mailed before, during or after the storms can often track it — an option now available in most states.
“They know where the ballots were last tracked .., there are barcodes on the outside of the envelopes that keep track, just like your Amazon packages and UPS packages,” he said.
Election workers are also contending with disinformation and misinformation related to storms and the aftermaths.
Social media users spread fake images and information about Helene recovery efforts to undermine the federal government’s response.
In North Carolina, Bell said an officially designated website with frequent updates is aimed at addressing that. She called efforts to share false information “a disgrace.”
Ashwell hopes Florida officials take a similar approach to quickly share up-to-date information.
“It’s a real patchwork when it comes to the counties. Some have information on their websites. Some might have an [Instagram] post. Some might have a Facebook post,” he said. “We’re having to hunt this stuff down, when we’re looking for it. So I can only imagine a voter who doesn’t have the time or the luxury to just focus on the stuff.”
The disinformation environment “is extremely bad right now,” said Becker, who predicted foreign adversaries and domestic actors “might try to leverage any possible opportunity to lie and potentially create chaos” about election processes, including after the storms.
“I think election officials are very much ready for the idea that they’re going to take the uncertainty that comes from this — the disaster relief and accommodations that are made — to confuse voters and potentially scare voters,” he said.
Election officials have spoken publicly about the impact of election denialism on their work over the years. Former President Donald Trump and some of his supporters continue to spread false and disproven narratives about widespread voter fraud.
Election officials have also experienced harassment and threats of violence, and some have left the field as a result. Orey worries about the convergence of election denialism and these storms.
“Election officials are members of their community, and so if voters are being impacted by hurricanes, then election officials are, too. And I just hope that voters are able to offer them the same humanity that they would offer their neighbors and their friends and the people they see at the grocery store,” they said. “Because this is exactly who election officials are.”
Bell, who worked previously as an elections official in western North Carolina, tried to emphasize that she is operating in a nonpartisan manner.
“These people are dear to me, and I don’t care what their political affiliation is,” she said. “We’re gonna get this job done, because that’s our work no matter what the election, no matter the circumstances, is to ensure that every eligible voter is able to cast their ballot.”
For up-to-date information on early voting, vote by mail and Election Day changes — including voting locations that may have changed if they were damaged in the storms — go to https://www.vote.org/.
