RALEIGH, N.C. (WBTV) – North Carolina election leaders took steps to ensure early voting can start as planned in all 100 counties across North Carolina on Thursday, October 17.
The N.C. State Board of Elections met on Monday and approved changes to election regulations in 13 counties hit hardest by Hurricane Helene.
Changes include allowing voters to return absentee ballots to any county board of elections and at any polling place; allowing changes to early voting and election day voting locations with a bipartisan majority vote by a county board of elections; and allowing counties to set up voting locations in neighboring counties with a bipartisan majority vote of the board, among other changes.
Some things aren’t changing: absentee ballots still must be submitted by 7:30 p.m. on election day, the deadline to register is this Friday, October 11 (with same-day registration allowed during early voting across the state) and nearly all voters do not have the option of voting electronically.
The 13 counties with the relaxed absentee ballot and voting location rules are: Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Transylvania, Watauga, and Yancey.
At a press conference on Monday afternoon, NCSBE Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell noted that all 100 counties had county board of election offices up and running. Brinson Bell said she anticipated early voting to open as scheduled in every county across the state.
Election administrators said they are asking the N.C. General Assembly for $2 million in emergency funding when lawmakers convene on Wednesday; that’s in addition to an unspecified amount of additional money Brinson Bell said NCSBE is seeking from federal officials.
Brinson Bell said elections staff are working to assess the viability of early voting locations in the impacted counties, including the need for additional supplies like generators, portable bathrooms or other logistic equipment. Some locations, she said, are also being used as shelters or to warehouse supplies.
Monday’s vote to adjust rules for the 13 impacted counties was unanimous, meaning it was approved across party lines.
Brinson Bell hit back against claims from some Republicans that elections officials in North Carolina were working in a partisan manner to respond to the storm.
“I hope it is clear today that our board acted in a bipartisan manner. I, as director, act in a nonpartisan manner,” Brinson Bell said, noting she started her career as an election staffer in the mountains.
“These people are dear to me. I don’t care what their party affiliation is and we’re gonna get this job job done.”
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