Headline Roundup • October 10th, 2024
How Will Recent Hurricanes Affect Voting Access?
Summary from the AllSides News Team
After hurricanes Helene and Milton devastated southeastern states, officials are working to ensure that everyone has voting access.
The Details: North Carolina and Florida have modified early voting days and increased the flexibility of some voting locations, allowing consolidation and relocation of voting centers. Some have pushed for Gov. DeSantis (R-FL) to extend voter registration deadlines, which closed on Monday, but a judge declined. South Carolina extended their registration deadline, and a lawsuit to extend the deadline in Georgia is ongoing. North Carolina has same-day registration available. Some have noted that regardless of accessibility, it will likely be the last thing on some victims' minds.
North Carolina: One-fifth of N.C. voters live in a hurricane-affected area. The regions voted 54% for Trump in 2020. Most polls show Trump with a narrow lead in the state. The executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) said they are considering an emergency authority to expand who can become a poll worker at a precinct. The Trump campaign and RNC were reportedly considering using buses as "mobile polling stations" in North Carolina. NCSBE said FEMA and the National Guard can set up voting tents and trailers if needed.
Florida: Pollster Craig Keshishian noted that in 2020, Florida had a 77% voter turnout rate. If the voter turnout dips to 40%, "only 320,000 Republicans in these impacted counties would show up on election day or mail-in their ballot. That's a projected loss of 280,000 Republican votes. Remember, Trump only won by 370,000."
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Officials in North Carolina and Florida are racing against the clock to put in new voting procedures aimed at making it easier to cast ballots after the devastating storms that tore through the states.
Why it matters: The changes — which include modifying early voting days and increased flexibility with some voting locations — reflect the growing concerns about the storms' impacts on the Nov. 5 election.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press.
Voters in states affected by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton have gone to court in recent days to try and extend voter registration deadlines in light of the natural disasters—which has been met with mixed success—as the hurricanes have become a voting access issue in some of the most tightly contested states in next month’s presidential election.
Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida Wednesday night as states across the South are still recovering from Hurricane Helene, which brought widespread impacts to states including North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.
Nearly every modern US presidential election cycle has been upended by an unforeseen 'surprise' of one sort or another.
In July 1972, Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern was shocked to learn, after his party's summer convention, that his running mate Thomas Eagleton had secretly received electroshock therapy to treat bouts of depression.
That was enough to discredit Eagleton with the grand poohbahs of the Democratic Party and help doom McGovern's campaign.
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