Western North Carolina sees record voter turnout despite Helene challenges

Voters in western North Carolina have turned out in record numbers despite ongoing recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene.

Transcript

00:00In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, North Carolina election officials were

00:04faced with a major challenge, ensuring voters in disaster-hit areas still had

00:08the opportunity to cast their ballots. The state quickly mobilized to provide

00:12options for early voting and on election day. Helene left a path of destruction

00:18that threatened to disrupt the democratic process for thousands of

00:21residents, but in the days following the hurricane, efforts began to restore

00:25essential services. This includes working with the Postal Service to ensure

00:28absentee ballot mail-ins and voter registrations could continue without

00:32delay. Local election offices got back up and running in just a week. To know that

00:38this has worked well, you look at the turnout and the fact that Western North

00:42Carolina is outpacing the rest of the state thus far. It's just a testament to

00:47the dedication and the extraordinary efforts by the election officials, by our

00:53partners at the state, local and federal levels, to make sure that even when

00:59devastation struck, that that did not stop voting. Legislation was passed to

01:05allow 25 disaster-affected counties to modify polling hours and locations as

01:10needed.