Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Monday, Oct. 7 that Georgia’s local election offices and majority of 2,400 voting precincts escaped significant Helene storm-damage on Sept. 27. File photo
Georgia state election officials announced Monday the fallout from devastation of Hurricane Helene is expected to have minimal disruptions to the upcoming Nov. 5 election.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said a week after the early recovery efforts began for several dozen counties struck by the storm on Sept. 27, local election officials are back on schedule Monday for the first day to mail out absentee ballots and remain on track for the start of voting on Oct. 15.
Several counties in south and east Georgia were badly affected by Helene, which knocked out power and cell service flooded entire towns in Tennessee and western North Carolina.
Georgia county election offices that were forced to press pause last week because of the storm are resuming poll worker training, voting equipment testing and other preparations for the three weeks of early voting and a Nov. 5 Election Day.
The general election ballot is headlined by the U.S. presidential contest between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump.
At a Monday Capitol press conference, Raffensperger thanked Gov. Brian Kemp and Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency Director Chris Stallings for a storm recovery response that prioritized having election facilities ready in time for voters to cast ballots.
County election offices were spared from any significant damage caused by the storm. Raffenspeger credited the county election supervisors for dealing with challenges of lost internet and electricity during the storm’s tear through Georgia.
County election officials “really put public service first because they understand how important voting is in 53 counties that so far have been declared federal disaster areas,” Raffensperger said during the media briefing. “Our office is working hard to make sure the counties have what they need so it can go off without a hitch.”
Local election officials will continue to visit polling places to determine whether they will be open on election day. For the Nov. 5 election, at least one polling place will not be available in Richmond, Columbia and Lowndes counties.
Any changes to Election Day polling places will be announced on the Secretary of State’s My Voter Page at https://mvp.sos.ga.gov/s/. County election officials also plan to use local media and social media to announce any changes to voting locations.
“When a county goes out to a polling location, they have to check not just the structure of the facility, but also things like parking and also the electricity that’s running there to make sure that it’s sufficient to supply the power to the voting machines.” State Election Director Blake Evans said.
Helene’s destructive path caused widespread power outages, fallen trees, blocked roadways, damaged buildings, ravaged the farming industry and has killed several dozen people in Georgia and caused over 200 deaths in the Southeast.
The effects of Helene have disrupted mail delivery, displaced residents, and affected election offices in battleground states like Georgia and North Carolina.Georgia officials said Monday that the state was fortunate not to experience major damage to local offices and other election facilities, which could have hampered voting over the next several weeks.
Helene has left several U.S. post offices unable to deliver mail in, which is currently delaying about 700 absentee ballots for the Nov. 5 election.
Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for the secretary of state’s office. said his office has been in constant contact with U.S. Postal Service officials about the handful of post office closures in storm-damaged counties, including Bacon and Richmond, which accounts for about half of the affected ballots.
Sterling said some voters will have the option of picking up their absentee ballots at their neighboring post office, or have the option to have the United Parcel Service or another source deliver the ballots. He also advised voters to drop their ballots off at local elections offices instead of relying on them to be delivered by mail.
“I have to get it from the USPS but I don’t have to send it back to the USPS,” Sterling said. “If I’m homebound I can get a caregiver or a family member to return it to a dropbox or to the county office.”
Georgia’s voter registration deadline expires at midnight Monday. There are 7.1 million active voters in Georgia and about 100,000 pending applications..
A Monday weather forecast showing Georgia in the path of Hurricane Milton as it blows across the Gulf of Mexico has Georgia election officials worried about the possibility of another severe storm.
“Our big fear we had in the conversation with our federal and state partners on Friday was if another storm comes through,” Sterling said. “We’re trying to get ahead of that by using other things for cellular connections and power connections and generators. We have that conversation every single day. But as of right now, I think most people have enough time. The bad part is the storm hit at all. The good part is it hit far enough out for us to be able to recover and make plans.”
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