In almost every election over the past 80 years, residents of North Fork, North Carolina — a small Appalachian community nestled in the mountainous northwest corner of the state — have gathered en masse in a small house made of concrete blocks to vote.
No larger than the size of a standard school bus, the North Fork polling house had one window, a screen door and a leaky metal roof. On frigid election days, the building’s coal stove left a tinge of smoke in the air as election workers and nearby residents rushed in and out of the unassuming building.
“We were so proud to see how crappy it was,” one election worker told ABC News of the community’s love for the simple structure. “It was cold, it was humid and it was perfect for us.”
One of the last dedicated polling places in North Carolina, the North Fork facility recently had its roof and door replaced ahead of the upcoming election, and nearby resident Patricia Beaver had made curtains separating the voting booths using red, white and blue fabric provided by Ashe County Elections Director.
“It wasn’t a nice place,” Beaver said. “It was one of those fun little places that you celebrate and love.”
But when the remnants of Hurricane Helene brought unprecedented rainfall to the area, the North Fork New River swelled and the rushing water swept away the building, washing away nearly a century of local history. The remains of the concrete blocks are now scattered across the river bank and the roof rests on the land of a neighboring property.
“It was completely discouraging,” said Mark Palkovic, a local resident who worked at the polling station. “It’s the end of an era because it will never be rebuilt, and if it was, it wouldn’t be the same as before.”
An undated photo on the left shows the North Fork polling house in Creston, North Carolina, before Hurricane Helene hit, while the photo on the right, taken by a local precinct worker, shows what remains of the structure after the storm.
Photos provided by Ashe County Board of Elections
“A really fluid situation”
What happened at the Ashe County polling place is not unique. After Hurricanes Helene and Milton swept through parts of the South in a span of three weeks, polling places in key states of North Carolina, Georgia and Florida were damaged, flooded or completely washed away, forcing officials campaigners to scramble to move polling stations and establish a sense of normalcy just weeks before the election.
“Some sites have been damaged. Some are being used as shelters. Some are completely isolated,” said Aaron Troutman, an elections specialist in Henderson County, North Carolina. “It’s a really fluid situation, and obviously everyone is coming together in terms of making some of these decisions.”
The ongoing emergency response has also complicated election plans because many polling stations occupy buildings that are used by emergency responders or as shelters. In some of the counties hardest hit by Helene in North Carolina, local officials have moved the majority of their polling places due to storm damage and the ongoing response to the hurricane.
“Some of them don’t even exist anymore,” said Mary Beth Tipton, director of elections in Yancey County, where two polling places were swept away by floodwaters and the majority of remaining polling places were displaced.
Hillsborough County, Florida, one of the hardest hit counties in the state, initially lost two polling places after Hurricane Helene, but officials believe more were damaged by the hurricane Milton. Assessment of the county’s 240 Election Day sites is not yet complete because many sites still do not have power.
“One of them had five feet of water in it,” Hillsborough County Elections Supervisor Craig Latimer told ABC News.
Local resident Patricia Bailey used fabric provided by the county elections director to make the curtains for the voting booths at the North Fork polling house, which was destroyed when Hurricane Helene swept through Creston, North Carolina.
Patricia Bailey
Despite the challenges of quickly adjusting their election plans in the weeks leading up to Election Day, all election officials who spoke with ABC News for this article expressed confidence that the necessary changes would be made to time to ensure every vote is counted in the hardest hit areas. by recent natural disasters.
“We’ve heard a lot of people say, ‘It’s up for voting this year.’ We want to make sure it stops there as we vote this year,” Joseph Trivette, Avery County deputy elections director, told ABC News.
While election officials assured displaced residents that storm damage would not impact voting access, the disruptions come as presidential elections show razor-thin margins in key states, including North Carolina.
“This is a state where margins matter, and I think it’s entirely possible that it could make a difference, at least in some races,” said Christopher Cooper, a political science professor at Western University from North Carolina.
“Significant damage to infrastructure”
When early voting begins Thursday in North Carolina, voters will have access to 419 early voting sites, only four of which were lost to Helene.
Buncombe County — which includes the hard-hit city of Asheville — was the only county in the state to close some early voting sites, operating ten early voting sites compared to 14 locations originally planned. Two of the polling places that are no longer operating are in fire stations used for emergency relief, and two additional polling places have been eliminated due to staffing issues, according to Buncombe County’s director of elections services. , Corinne Duncan.
“Our office has been planning for the 2024 election for years, but we certainly didn’t expect this,” Duncan told ABC News.
Last week, the North Carolina State Board of Elections approved a series of measures aimed at giving election officials in counties hardest hit by Helene more flexibility to change their voting plans, including changing the locations, dates and hours of operation of early voting sites. Voters in the 25 counties most affected by the storm have the option to drop off their absentee ballots at any early voting site in the state.
“Opening nearly all early voting sites after such a devastating storm is an effort that all North Carolinians should be proud of,” Executive Director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections said Tuesday. Karen Brinson Bell. “Western North Carolina residents will vote.”
With early voting set to begin Monday in Florida, state election officials told ABC News they are optimistic that voters will be able to cast ballots at polling places. Pinellas County’s seven early voting sites were not affected by the two hurricanes, and 27 Hillsborough County early voting sites will be open to voters, officials told ABC News.
“We actually lost one of the sites to the hurricanes,” Latimer said. “But we moved it.”
In a letter Tuesday to Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd, the Florida Association of Election Supervisors requested 11 changes for affected counties, including extending early voting until Election Day and moving or the consolidation of several polling stations.
“The cumulative impact of these storms resulted in significant infrastructure damage, power outages, and the displacement of residents, including voters, as well as poll and poll workers essential to the electoral process,” two officials wrote. the association.
Georgia – which began early voting on Tuesday – saw no major disruptions to early voting due to Helen and Milton, and the state set a record for the first day of early voting on Tuesday.
“As normal as possible”
While early voting in North Carolina is expected to go as planned for most voters in the state, officials are still evaluating dozens of polling places to determine whether they will be operational on Election Day.
Yancey County election officials are trying to move ten of the county’s eleven polling locations, while Avery County officials reduced the total number of polling locations after Helene hit 14 of the county’s 19 voting sites. county. Two inches of mud remain inside a voting site, the Avery County Senior Center, after three feet of water rushed into the building during the storm.
Avery County now plans to operate eight fewer polling places than usual on Election Day, although county officials have established an additional early voting site in a flood-affected area of the county. For the relocated polling places, the county has located alternative sites that officials hope will be convenient for voters.
“Luckily for us, all the polling places we had to move are right next to the precinct, so they don’t have very far to travel,” Trivette said.
In hard-hit Buncombe County, election officials are still working to confirm whether 14 of the state’s 80 polling places will be usable on Election Day, while 464 of the county’s 537 poll workers have confirmed they would work on election day.
In addition to dealing with the destruction of the North Fork polling location, Ashe County had to move six of the county’s 17 polling places after two polling places were flooded and another was destroyed of its foundations, according to Ashe County Board of Elections Director Devon Houck.
“We fought very hard to keep things as normal as possible,” said Robert Inman, director of elections for Haywood County, which moved three storm-damaged polling places.
In neighboring Georgia, election officials have identified a total of three polling places that must be moved due to the storm in Richmond, Lowndes and Columbia counties.
“As far as the impacts of the hurricane go, we look pretty strong across the board,” said Gabriel Sterling, a top elections official in the Georgia secretary of state’s office.
