Counties respond to hurricanes ahead of November 2024 elections

Key Takeaways

As of October 15, two major hurricanes have hit the Southeastern U.S. this year, devastating communities just weeks before the November 5 election. Hurricane Helene, which made landfall on September 23, is now the second most deadly hurricane after Katrina in 2001. Not only are counties at the frontlines of managing the emergency disaster response, but they are also responsible for upcoming election administration in a few short weeks. 

What has the federal response been? 

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is actively working with state and local governments to support hurricane response efforts. On October 1, FEMA lifted the Immediate Needs Funding (INF) restrictions following the availability of $20 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF), effectively resumed recovery efforts. 

On October 10, Congressional Democrats sent a letter to President Biden requesting $500,000 in FEMA funds to affected states’ election offices. This funding would go directly towards deploying mobile voting units to replace affected polling sites, providing hazard pay to election employees, and replacing damaged voting equipment. 

Learn more about FEMA’s response here. 

Additional NACo resources:

• Intergovernmental Roles and Responsibilities in Disaster Resilience
• Managing disasters at the County-Level: A Focus on Flooding

How do hurricanes affect elections? 

• Infrastructure: Hurricane Helene has left an estimated $35 billion in damages to Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Infrastructure challenges include structural damage to polling sites, but also damage to roads, personal property, and postal services that limit voters’ ability to vote in person and by mail. 
• Staffing: County elections staff are not only administering elections, but many are also dealing with personal property loss, lack of water and power, and grief. Staff shortages and well-being are at the forefront of county election administrators’ priorities. 
• Power: Loss of power is one of the most widespread impacts of major storms, slowing recovery efforts and limiting polling site operations.  As of October 5, 200,000 people were still without power in North Carolina following the storm. Early voting is soon to start across affected states, placing time restraints on recovery efforts 
• Impact on voting machines: Reports indicate that there has been negligible damage to voter machines from Hurricane Helene. Potential damage to voter machines, tabulators, and ballot paper are major concerns after natural disasters. 
• Turnout: Previous storms, like Hurricane Michael in Florida indicate that hard-hit areas tend to have lower turnout following major hurricanes.  

How have states responded? 

• Florida: On October 3, Governor Ron DeSantis authorized election changes to 10 counties recovering from Hurricane Helene, including location changes to early voting sites, allowing state employees to take paid leave to serve as poll workers, and loosening restrictions on mail-in-voting. As Florida recovered from Hurricane Helene, Hurricane Milton made landfall on October 9, creating more devastation to communities and roadblocks for election operations. 
• Georgia: Georgia has yet to fully regain power and internet from Hurricane Helene and has reported difficulty delivering absentee ballots to hard hit areas. Georgia has reported that no polling places were destroyed, but many face structural damages. However, Georgia Secretary of State has indicated that GA will not face major delays because of the storm. 
• North Carolina: Nearly 20 percent of NC voters are in hard hit areas after Hurricane Helene. With a significant list of zip codes where USPS cannot reach, North Carolina officials are working with UPS and FedEx to develop contingency plans for the ballot mail out date.
• Tennessee: At least 6 polling locations in northwest Tennessee have structural damage or are inaccessible by car following Hurricane Helene. 

NACo will continue to monitor election administration challenges ahead of the November general election.