The North Carolina Board of Elections Board approved additional support and solutions to ensure voting accessibility in 13 counties in Western North Carolina deeply impacted by Helene.
The unanimous adoption of an elections board resolution allows for certain adaptions or changes, directed at the local level, only by bipartisan decision-making in the following counties: Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Transylvania, Watauga, and Yancey.
Multipartisan Assistance Teams will be available to assist with absentee ballot requests and absentee voting at disaster shelters and other places such as assisted living facilities.
Stacy “Four” Eggers IV, a Republican from Boone was appointed in 2023, spoke about the need for these changes.
“I think ultimately is a necessary step and that this is an unprecedented amount of damage and destruction that’s been caused by this storm. Not only has it resulted in loss of life and personal property but it has severely damaged the road systems water systems and communications systems up here in the High Country,” Eggers said.
These counties will be able to change early voting locations by adding sites, or removing sites that are unusable as well as updating days and hours those locations are open. This could include moving sites to neighboring counties for those places that have been devastated by the storm.
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(Photo by Gerard Albert III)