Voter turnout on the first day of early voting in the critical battleground state of North Carolina is on track to surpass all previous records despite the horrific toll that Hurricane Helene has taken on the state’s western region.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell told reporters in Asheville, Thursday afternoon that turnout had been “terrific” thus far statewide.
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“It is anticipated that this may actually be our best early voting day ever, or at least for the opening day, which is what we experienced in 2020. So, we’ll see,” said Brinson Bell.
Early voting hours at locations statewide fluctuate depending on the day and week. As of Thursday, the state had early voting open in all 100 counties, including 76 early voting sites in the 25 counties severely hit by the hurricane.
— Jason Puckett (@JasonPWBTV) October 17, 2024
Not far away in Georgia, early voting commenced Tuesday with a record-high number of early voters casting ballots on the first day of an election in a presidential race year.
The high turn-out in both states comes after greater excitement in the Democratic Party for the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris following President Joe Biden’s stepping aside, as well as efforts by former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee to encourage early voting. Republicans have generally preferred to vote on Election Day rather than voting ahead of time.
Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) encouraged residents to vote and thanked people who had helped people out west recover from the historic storm in late September and put them in a better position to be able to vote now.
“Today is the first day of early voting in NC. Thank you to the North Carolina Board of Elections for your hard work helping ensure people can exercise their right to vote, especially in WNC following Helene. Find your county’s early voting locations at http://vt.ncsbe.gov,” Cooper wrote in a post to X on Thursday.
Today is the first day of early voting in NC. Thank you to the North Carolina Board of Elections for your hard work helping ensure people can exercise their right to vote, especially in WNC following Helene. Find your county’s early voting locations at https://t.co/jK3ZBss5vO
— Governor Roy Cooper (@NC_Governor) October 17, 2024
Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) told CNN in an interview Thursday morning that he did not believe false information spread online over the past three weeks since the storm had had a significant impact on voters.
In the weeks since Helene swept through North Carolina on Sept. 28, misinformation and disinformation have circulated online that falsely claim that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is not sending in resources to the affected area; that the Federal Aviation Administration has restricted airspace to prevent air rescues; that the government geoengineered the hurricane; and that FEMA was short of funding to respond to further hurricanes because it had diverted money to cover costs related to the southern border crisis.
“I don’t think that the misinformation, the rumors that have been out there are going to affect voting at all,” Edwards said. “I believe that while here in Western North Carolina we’ve been very busy, not necessarily paying attention to politics but trying to dig out from underneath this storm and help people put their lives back together. And now that early voting has kicked off today, it is clear, it’s apparent that the political season is here.”
.@RepChuckEdwards on the first day of early, in-person voting in North Carolina: “I don’t think that the misinformation, the rumors that have been out there are going to affect voting at all… The political season is here and I’ll just encourage everyone to make a plan…” pic.twitter.com/As2LklyL3M
— CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt (@CNNThisMorning) October 17, 2024
Both campaigns have hammered North Carolina in recent days with voter events and rallies across the state. On Wednesday evening, Trump running mate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) rallied voters in the southeastern beach town of Wilmington.
On Thursday afternoon, Harris running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) joined former President Bill Clinton in Durham for a campaign event then was slated to be in Winston Salem later in the day with rapper Common.
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The Trump campaign has pushed elected officials in the state to expand voter access across Western North Carolina, a stronghold region for Republicans. Although the region includes the Democratic-majority city of Asheville, the suburban and rural areas are largely Republican and the region.
The Trump campaign has pushed for 10 actions from Cooper and the North Carolina General Assembly, which have the power to change voting policies.
“These 10 improvements in voting access in North Carolina will ensure the people who have already suffered from the storm don’t lose their right to participate in this important election,” said Trump-Vance campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita in a statement issued Oct. 8.
Trump’s team called for all voters in impacted counties to be able to vote anywhere in the county, not just the local precinct they were assigned.
Demands included giving election teams the ability to deliver absentee ballots to the county boards; allowing displaced voters to deliver their ballots to a different county or to the state election board, as well as to turn in provisional ballots on Election Day to neighboring counties; and providing emergency funding for additional communication to reach voters by digital, radio, broadcast, and text.
The Republican candidate also pushed for early voting site times in the impacted counties to include Sunday and expanded in other ways in the region; temporary structures to be set up for early voting and on Election Day; and waiving the residency requirement for poll workers, poll observers, and election officials in affected counties.
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It remained unclear as of Thursday if the state has bent to the Trump campaign and Republican National Committee’s demands to make broad accommodations for voters in the state’s western region.
Early voting has gotten underway in a number of states, including in battleground states Arizona and Georgia.