VOTER SUPPRESSION: Why are North Carolina Democrats Stopping Hurricane Helene Survivors from Voting Early?

While Republicans in western North Carolina are trying to help hurricane victims vote, Democrat election officials are doing their best to stand in the way of their voting rights.

Hurricane Helene may have cost western North Carolinians everything, but thousands are committed to voting early despite Democratic election officials standing in their way.

The Democratic-controlled Board of Elections (BOE) in McDowell County continually refuses to replace an early voting location lost to storm damage, which would help Hurricane Helene victims vote. The loss of the second location in Old Fort is hampering voter turnout in the damaged area and creating traffic hazards in the county seat of Marion, site of the Republican-leaning county’s sole remaining early voting location.

Image courtesy Roxan Wetzel

On the first day of early voting, McDowell County Republican chairman Chet Effler asked the BOE—which is appointed by the Democrat-controlled North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE)—to open a second location to replace the Old Fort site because people were posting on Facebook that they wanted to vote but couldn’t access the early voting site at the BOE building. 

The Democrat-controlled BOE held an emergency meeting on October 17 but unanimously voted against opening a second location.

McDowell Technical Community College even offered its Universal Advanced Manufacturing Center as a second location. But Democrat board member Kay House claimed that because it has never been used for voting, it would be too disruptive to election staff to start using it now—even though the building is already slated for use as a precinct in the general election.

Asked if local Democratic leaders share his concerns about remote voter access, Effler said they had accused him of “demoralizing” the BOE for simply requesting a second location. He added that they showed more concern about traffic control officers displaying blue lights because it might scare off Democrats from voting than they showed about residents having access to vote at all.

The hypocrisy of Democrats denying access to voters who have lost everything couldn’t be more glaring.

The BOE in Asheville’s heavily Democratic Buncombe County approved new voting locations for the entirety of early voting to replace those damaged by the hurricane. It has 10 early voting sites.

Meanwhile, hurricane victims in inaccessible areas of heavily Republican Henderson County face an even worse situation than McDowell County. Henderson is the second largest county in western North Carolina after Buncombe and typically has 4 early voting sites. Here too, hurricane damage reduced it to a single location. On October 24, Henderson County’s BOE finally approved a second location, but for only two days of early voting at the end of October. This gives Democratic-heavy Buncombe County one location per 28,000 residents, compared with McDowell County’s single location for its 45,000 residents and Henderson County’s single location for its 120,000 residents.

Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party have made opposition to voter ID and support for early voting central to their platform. Yet, when given the opportunity to expand early voting access in a Republican-majority area, Democrats balk at the idea. The NSCBE waived the state’s voter ID requirement for hurricane-affected counties in the same resolution it unanimously adopted to allow counties to add, remove, and replace damaged polling places with a majority vote of a county’s BOE. The North Carolina General Assembly then unanimously passed it into law with its own expanded recommendations on October 9.

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In McDowell County, access to the polls was made difficult for everyone during the first two days of early voting, as thousands converged on the BOE building at a busy Marion intersection.

“We should be doing everything possible to provide people with voting access and restore a sense of normalcy to them in the midst of this devastation.” Effler told Restoration News.

“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.”

Roxan Wetzel, a Republican voting electioneer, said that in addition to the normally heavy traffic in that area, trucks hauling rocks up the mountains to shore up washed-out roads pass through that intersection twice daily.

She noted that election workers fit as many voting booths as possible inside, which helps the flow if people manage to reach the building. But the main issue remains access to the building itself. She said that people were growing frustrated, disobeying traffic laws, and she saw a couple of voters almost get run over.

Effler said that after the BOE’s refusal to appoint a second polling location, the McDowell County GOP ended its canvassing efforts and focused on providing transportation to people who need help getting to the Marion voting location.

On October 21, the BOE convened an emergency meeting to reconsider opening a second location. Effler spoke to the board, thanked them for their time and work, and requested that they open a second site even for two or three days. He noted that other counties had already moved multiple sites.

In neighboring Avery County, for instance, county BOE officials even added an early voting site instead of having the single early voting site in Newland as they have in past elections. Avery County has less than half the population of McDowell County.

Nevertheless, the McDowell County BOE again voted no.

“We were told that because of staffing, location, and security that the Board denied the request,” said Effler. North Carolina state law, however, allows precinct workers and election judges from other counties to help if a county needs additional staff.

“Our complete position is not concerning the overflow of that site,” said Effler, referring to the BOE building. “It is still overcrowded, but they’re managing it to the best of their ability. Our concern is access of the voters living 13 miles away.”

This is a developing story and will be updated as new information comes to light.

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