With 34 days to go until Nov. 4, a North Carolina voting provision may throw a wrench in the election thanks to a disaster declaration implemented following Hurricane Helene.
On Sunday, President Joe Biden approved a major disaster declaration for North Carolina, whose western region has been ravaged by Hurricane Helene. Forty people have died in Buncombe County alone, which is home to Asheville and its surrounding suburbs. North Carolina’s laws state that a prospective voter must present a form of photo ID, but voters can circumvent this restriction in the event of a “natural disaster” that prompts a major disaster declaration from either the governor or the president.
A bulletin on the Buncombe County website states that voters without identification may still vote if they sign an “affidavit of reasonable impediment.” It also notes “the exception form can also be used if you have a religious exception to being photographed or are a victim of a recently declared natural disaster.”
North Carolina’s statutes explain that a prospective voter who fails to provide a photo ID may still fill out a provisional ballot if they fall victim to a “natural disaster.” The disaster must have occurred “within 100 days before election day that resulted in a disaster declaration by the President of the United States or the Governor of this State.” In this case, a voter simply has to fill out an affidavit to be reviewed by the county’s board of elections.
Twenty-four other North Carolina counties, all of which Trump won in 2020, were included in Biden’s emergency declaration.
OLD FORT, NORTH CAROLINA – SEPTEMBER 30: A destroyed building is seen near Mill Creek in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on September 30, 2024 in Old Fort, North Carolina. According to reports, at least 100 people have been killed across the southeastern U.S., and millions are without power due to the storm, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Thursday. The White House has approved disaster declarations in North Carolina, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia and Alabama, freeing up federal emergency management money and resources for those states. (Photo by Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)
Affidavits signed by voters are subject to review by their county’s board of elections. These affidavits are presumed valid “unless the county board has grounds to believe the affidavit is false.” (RELATED: Swing State Purges 747,000 Names From Voter Rolls)
“The natural disaster exception will apply only to individuals who cannot show photo ID because of the disaster. The Photo ID Exception Form signed by the voter informs them that they must truthfully complete the form, and that fraudulently or falsely completing the form is a felony,” the State Board of Elections told the Daily Caller.
The State Board of Elections also said that all county boards of elections throughout the state will consider the provisional ballots, emphasizing that the Buncombe County Board of Elections is “bipartisan.”
“The bipartisan Buncombe County Board of Elections, and all county boards of elections across North Carolina, will consider all provisional ballots. If the county board unanimously finds that a voter’s exception form is false, the provisional ballot would not be counted. The county board must provide any such voter the opportunity to be heard before rejecting the provisional ballot,” they said.
Buncombe County’s Board of Elections is comprised of three Democrats and two Republicans. Chairman Jake Quinn, a former DNC superdelegate, previously characterized Republican-led efforts to combat election fraud as “a problem.”
“We’re looking at different district boundaries, or we have to have voter IDs, or you can’t vote out of precinct, or the hours have to be changed,” Quinn told ProPublica in 2019. “This is a problem. When you change the rules for voting every single election, some people are going to get discouraged by that. All of this is very destabilizing.”
Quinn was referencing a 2013 bill passed largely by Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly. The bill required voters to present a photo ID before reaching the ballot box, limited early voting and eliminated pre-registration of high school students, same-day registration and out-of-precinct voting.
Before joining the Buncombe County election board, Quinn worked as a superdelegate to the DNC as late as 2016. Then- Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders’ campaign named Quinn on a list of superdelegates supporting Sanders for president in an April 2016 letter.
Real Clear Politics poll averages for North Carolina currently favor Donald Trump over Kamala Harris by a slim 0.7 points. In the 2020 presidential election, Trump beat Joe Biden by a mere 80,000 votes, Trump’s slimmest margin of victory anywhere. The 25 counties included in federal disaster declarations went to Trump in 2020, except Buncombe County, which Joe Biden won by almost 60%.