As Florida and North Carolina recover from Hurricane Helene and Milton, concerns about how voters will access the polls heighten.
Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) is urging voters to begin making plans for how they will vote, with the election being only three weeks away, millions of people still without power, and many with no reliable source of transportation. In Florida, Hurricane Helene tore through the state, resulting in billions of dollars of destruction and more than 230 people dead.
“There will likely be some people out there that, for one reason or another, will not be able to exercise their most important constitutional right,” Edwards said. “I'll also follow up with folks in the area and make offers to help get transportation for those folks that feel like they might not have a normal life or a transportation style to make it to the polls.”
Edwards said more than 9,000 acres of western North Carolina were affected by the hurricane among 28 counties— 6,000 of that is in his district.
The congressman acknowledged that people are not thinking about the election at the moment as they are trying to get their “Power back on, trying to get in touch with their loved ones, trying to dig out from the debris,” but encouraged them to start thinking about how they will vote and request an absentee ballot if they believe they won’t make it to the polls on Election Day.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) granted counties hit the hardest by Hurricane Helene some flexibility in distributing mail-in ballots and changing polling sites for in-person voting.
Concerns have grown that people won’t be able to receive their mail-in ballots because many have had to flee their homes or be damaged by the high winds and waters.
In addition, dozens of polling sites in at least 13 counties in Florida have been damaged.
Regarding the Biden-Harris Administration’s response to the deadly storms, Edwards gives the government a “C-minus.”
“This storm was over about 10 a.m. on Friday, and it was into Tuesday before we saw the first boots on the ground from FEMA before we saw the first helicopters with food and water," he said.