It’s been a little over a month since Hurricane Helene ripped through the southeastern United States. hundreds of lives and results in an estimated value 53 billion dollars of damage. besides being record breaking stormHelene was also the first hurricane in American history to hit two battleground states within weeks of a major election.

In North Carolina, one of seven states likely to determine the outcome of this week’s presidential race, Helene’s devastation displaced thousands of people, closed hundreds of roads and disrupted mail just weeks before early voting began in the state. More than 20 post offices opened I’m still forwarding mail As of October 22.

North Carolina election board took swift action ensuring that people affected by the storm protect their right to vote, confirm a decision Extending early voting periods and loosening some restrictions on absentee voting, among other actions, in the 13 western counties hardest hit by Helene. Despite these measures, a question still emerged: Would the storm reduce voter turnout?

As early voting ends, data released by local officials on Helene’s path shows: Voter enthusiasm has not diminished. In fact, there may be an opposite trend. North Carolina and Georgia, other battleground states affected by Helene, reported record-breaking early voting numbers: There is voter participation exceeded 2012 and 2016and 2020 in North Carolina — a pandemic election year in which many people voted early to avoid crowds.

The North Carolina Board of Elections announced: 4 million votes were cast in the state as of 14:00 on Friday, November 1It’s nearly 51 percent of North Carolina’s total registered voters and the largest year of early voting ever in the state.

“Even in the Western North Carolina counties hardest hit by Hurricane Helene, there doesn’t seem to be a huge drop in early voter turnout rates,” said Jowei Chen, an associate professor of political science at the University of Michigan who studies redistricting and political geography. “The convenience of mail-in voting and early voting may have reduced the potential negative effects of the hurricane on voters.”

Displaced voters can request a mail-in ballot be sent to their new, temporary residence, but it’s inevitable that some of these hurricane victims will be overlooked while dealing with the logistical and mental burden of disaster recovery, Chen said.

The high turnout in North Carolina and Georgia indicates that this election, widely considered to be among the most important of the 21st century, and the Republican party’s adoption of early voting this cycle. But election officials’ response to Hurricane Helene also opened new avenues for affected and displaced voters to participate. Disaster researchers say the federal and state disaster relief process itself likely affects how voters show up to vote and who they vote for.

In Avery County, North Carolina, the storm-damaged Roaring Creek, Ingalls, and Plumtree voting areas were consolidated into Riverside Elementary School. At midday on Thursday, poll workers were eating lunch while teachers were in and out of school to collect supplies to distribute to distressed areas in the district. Although the day was slow, workers said they saw between 600 and 700 people vote that week; They said that this number was higher than in previous years.

In one county, Spruce Pine, the largest town in heavily Republican Mitchell County, about a dozen early voters showed up at a volunteer fire department within an hour to vote. Located in the city center and surrounded by wide, well-paved roads and car parks, the site is easily accessible. One voter who gave her name as Lauren said voting early was easier than waiting until Election Day because she had a flood-affected campground and had cleanup to do.

Past research has shown that a hurricane is possible. Both suppress and mobilize voters. A person whose house is destroyed in a major disaster and who is engaged in politics may abandon his voting priority to prioritize something more urgent, such as rebuilding his house.

On the other hand, voters who received federal aid or another type of kickback after the storm may be more likely to vote, and some research shows: vote for the incumbent party (the party responsible for granting this commission). Research also shows that people who do this Negative People who receive adequate government assistance are similarly inclined to vote, but for the challenging party.

James Robinson, a welder who voted at the Spruce Pine polling place on Thursday, said he was a Trump voter before the hurricane and will continue to be elected after the hurricane. Robinson suffered damage to his home from Helene. He didn’t lose everything like some do, but his experience reaffirmed his beliefs. “The government’s response here has been deplorable,” Robinson said, noting it was a slow response because he and his neighbors had cut themselves off from their own driveways.

Thirty miles away, in predominantly Republican Madison County, not far from Asheville, Francine, a 67-year-old small business owner who asked that her last name be withheld, has been a registered voter for 10 years. His home wasn’t badly damaged by Helene, but most of his neighbors’ homes and businesses were destroyed, as were his town’s infrastructure. “You go a few miles in any direction and it’s terrible,” he said.

Days before the storm hit, Francine woke up in the middle of the night with a gastrointestinal obstruction and spent eight days in the hospital recovering. When he came home after being discharged, he realized that his voter registration card was delivered to his wife, not him. North Carolina over the past year removed approximately 750,000 registrants for the purpose of removing duplicates, deceased and other ineligible voters from the voter rolls. Francine wondered if she had been mistakenly counted among them. But he wasn’t good enough yet to go to the election office and resolve this issue. The day he was going to have his stitches removed, Hurricane Helene hit. Francine’s husband removed the stitches himself as the storm raged around them.

Two weeks ago, Francine was finally able to go to her local elections office and prove to the clerk that an error on her recently renewed driver’s license had led to her record being improperly expunged by the state. He voted for Kamala Harris early last week and was surprised to see so many people voting early.

Francine’s top issues are women’s rights, separation of church and state, and U.S. involvement in conflicts abroad. He wasn’t happy with either candidate, but said he couldn’t stomach voting for Trump. Reaction from the former president to the hurricane that poured fuel on the fire False rumors and conspiracy theories This aftermath of the storm made him even more demoralized about his candidacy. “Everyone is pointing fingers at each other and it gets really ugly,” he said. “Everyone is so excited that I think there will be great participation.”