Dems In NC’s Helene Disaster Area Block Early Voting Locations
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which caused significant destruction in western North Carolina, there has been a political struggle regarding the approval of emergency early voting sites. Local elections boards in McDowell and Henderson counties, both of which heavily supported Donald Trump in the 2020 election, have been criticized for not expanding early voting access despite the devastation. This inaction has prompted the Republican-controlled state legislature to step in and mandate the addition of early voting locations.
Clay McCreary, a political director for an advocacy organization, emphasized the importance of ensuring voting rights for those affected by the hurricane, arguing that it should be a bipartisan issue. In contrast, nearby Buncombe County, which is predominantly Democratic, has already approved new voting locations to replace those lost due to the hurricane.
Under the new law, counties must establish one early voting site for every 30,000 registered voters, leading to the requirement for Henderson County—a community of 120,000 people with only one current voting location—to open three additional sites. While the Henderson County Board of Elections has agreed to increase locations, the response has been criticized as inadequate by local officials. In McDowell County, there is also a push for an additional voting site due to the significant distance for voters to reach current locations amidst recovery challenges.
the situation underscores the intersection of disaster response and political maneuvering, as local leaders seek to balance accessibility to voting with the challenges posed by the recent hurricane.
The havoc wrought by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina brought disaster to homes and families, but that has not stopped Democrats from blocking the approval of emergency early voting sites in the heavily Republican area. The refusal to act forced the GOP-led state legislature to intervene.
Democrat-run local elections boards in McDowell and Henderson counties have failed to approve additional early voting sites in the disaster-stricken area, despite increasing calls for more access to voting. Both counties voted for Donald Trump in 2020.
“Ensuring the right to vote is upheld for western NC citizens devastated by Hurricane Helene should be a non-partisan issue,” western North Carolina native Clay McCreary said, according to The Carolina Journal. McReary is North Carolina political director of Restoration of America, an organization that has been advocating for additional voting opportunities in the disaster area. “We simply cannot allow the people of western North Carolina who have lost so much to lose their voice in the political process.”
Meanwhile, Democrats in nearby deep-blue Buncombe County, home to Asheville, have already given the go-ahead for new voting locations to replace the ones damaged by Helene, bringing the county’s total to 10.
Despite being mostly out of the news cycle, destruction in western North Carolina is still extreme, and the area has not yet recovered.
Lawmakers in the Republican-controlled General Assembly are now being forced to compel the two counties to open up more voting locations so that the people affected by Helene are not being disenfranchised by the Democrats in power.
The new law will require counties to open one early voting site per 30,000 registered voters in the Helene-affected region, and must be operational from Oct. 29 to Nov. 3. Henderson represents western North Carolina’s second-largest population next to Buncombe.
Right now, Buncombe maintains one early voting location per 28,000, whereas Henderson only has a single voting location for 120,000 residents. Under normal circumstances, Henderson would have three sites, and the legislation will now require the county to open three additional sites, bringing the number of early voting locations to four. While the Henderson County Board of Elections did approve a second location, it will only be open for two days in late October.
Republican state Rep. Jennifer Balkcom, who represents Henderson, said she has heard from both Democrat and Republican constituents in her district who are concerned about the lack of voting sites.
McDowell is home to 45,000 and also only has one location. The legislation will mandate that the county open at least one additional location. The county elections board initially declined to open a second site after county Republican Party Chairman Chet Effler requested that an additional early voting site be opened at Old Fort Depot.
“With the [Old Fort Depot] site closed, it’s now a 13-mile drive to the next voting site, not counting the hindrances people face from the flooding in their area,” he added. “That may not seem like a long way, but it is when you’ve lost everything, and you’re trying to put your life back together.”
“McDowell Technical Community College officials offered the use of the Universal Advanced Manufacturing Center as a second early voting location,” according to The McDowell News. “But Kay House, a Democratic board member, said that location has not been used before for voting and the disruption of the elections staff could cause problems.” That building, however, will be used as an Election Day precinct, and after the General Assembly passed the legislation forcing the county to add an early voting location, all board members voted to add another location at Old Fort Depot.
Stonewalling the approval of new voting locations in the disaster area seems inexplicable, as even the Democrat-run State Board of Elections and state legislature have made it easy for local boards to open them under emergency circumstances. The state board did not respond to a request for comment from The Federalist.
Democrats playing games with peoples’ access to vote this close to the election and in Republican-heavy districts devastated by a natural disaster lends even more credence to the belief that state and federal Democrats have slow-rolled relief efforts in order to suppress the vote.
As The Federalist reported, the counties included in the emergency declaration for Helene brought a net 247,217 votes for Trump in 2020. Trump only won the state by about 75,000 votes.
For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.
Breccan F. Thies is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.
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