Hurricane Helene has caused massive damage in North Carolina. It is one of the key battlegrounds for the presidential race.

Helene has suddenly created huge hurdles for both voters and election officials, just 35 days prior to the November 5th election.

Seth Morris is an expert in election law and an associate at Parker Poe, North Carolina.

The storm has decimated communities in western North Carolina. It is responsible for the deaths of more than 100 people throughout the Southeast.

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North Carolina election officials were already under increased pressure this year, after the Supreme Court of the state granted a change at the 11th hour that allowed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. his name to be removed from the state ballots due to his suspension of his campaign.

The court’s decision forced officials to scramble in order to reprint absentee and mail-in ballots that were originally scheduled to be sent on Sept. 6.

This was a costly adjustment that caused the state to be unable to send out absentee and mail-in ballots until September 24.

Officials are now racing to answer the questions of how and when voters who requested ballots can expect them.

According to data from the state, nearly 250,000 North Carolinians requested absentee ballots this year. This includes almost 10,000 people in Buncombe County which includes Asheville, and is one the most hard-hit areas of the state.

Gerry Cohen, a Wake County Board of Elections member, told The News and Observer that he believes the mail would have been completely wiped out if it had arrived in mailboxes on Thursday and Friday.

Buncombe County and Wake County are largely Democratic counties, but damage was also severe in areas that lean Republican, like Yancey County.

As the threat to election administrators continues to increase, poll workers and election officials were under a lot of pressure as they worked in North Carolina.

Election officials are bracing themselves for the possibility that former President Trump or his allies could take advantage of any anticipated delays or changes to the electoral process to falsely accuse the election as fraudulent, just like Trump did in 2020 when he lost the election to President Biden.

North Carolina and Georgia, a state also affected by Helene, are likely to be the swing states that decide an election where polls predict a razor-thin victory margin.

On October 17, North Carolina will begin early in-person voting. This deadline may be hard to meet for some officials, especially in areas where polling places have been damaged or destroyed.

Morris stated that “small staffs are in many of these places, and their attention will be diverted elsewhere.”

“[Many] will not be able go to work this coming week to prepare for the early voting or to deal with mail-ballots.”

What they are saying: Karen Brinson Bell is the executive director of North Carolina’s State Board of Elections. She said that during an emergency meeting held on Monday, all members of North Carolina’s elections community were safe and prepared to “serve all eligible voters.”

She said that the Buncombe County field specialist walked to the county office from his home today, which is “probably about a 4- or 5-mile trek.”

Brinson Bell reported that 14 out of 22 counties in the state were closed Monday, and that she expected “several days more of closure”. She also said that she hadn’t received a report on status from a single county.

She said: “We don’t stop an election. We figure out how to move forward.”