How NC will administer an election in Helene's wake

The big picture: North Carolina is one of just a handful of states that will likely decide the presidential election.

Context: Western North Carolina communities devastated by Helene still lack power, internet and cell service. Many roads remain impassible in the area, effectively cutting much of the region off from the rest of the state and making it impossible to know the extent of the damage in some places.

• "Voting won't be a priority for a lot of people," Seth Morris, an election law expert and associate at Parker Poe in North Carolina, told Axios.

Driving the news: The storm hit mere days after election officials began sending absentee ballots to in-state voters. In some places, it's unclear whose ballots were delivered, received or washed away.

• Early voting is set to begin in just over two weeks, and officials are still working to determine the status of many polling places.
• And the deadline to register to vote — Oct. 11 — is rapidly approaching, as many in the state remain displaced and disconnected.

The good news: State officials believe they have plenty of time to ensure voters in the mountains are not disenfranchised.

• "We're going to make use of that time, and we're going to consider all options of how we're going to be able to help people be able to cast their ballot," state elections board executive director Karen Brinson Bell said in a press conference Tuesday morning.
• Brinson Bell said that she would go into a community "and knock on doors if that's what it takes" to ensure voters can cast their ballots.

What they're saying: Helene is "not going to stop how we do elections just because there's been a hurricane," Brinson Bell said. "We might have to do it a little differently, but we're going to proceed, and we're going to deliver this election."

What we know: Essential materials, like voting equipment and ballots, were unharmed, as elections offices were not damaged in the storm, Brinson Bell said.

• Some counties without internet services have received or requested special emergency kits — "election offices in a box" — that allow them to continue registering voters, process absentee ballot requests and make other election preparations.
• Watauga County has received a kit, and Mitchell, Yancey, Henderson and Haywood counties have requested them.
• More than 250,000 North Carolinians have requested an absentee ballot this year, according to state data, including almost 10,000 from Buncombe County, which includes Asheville and is one of the hardest-hit parts of the state.

North Carolina officials will be working with county elections boards, emergency management partners and others to determine in the coming days and weeks, per state elections officials:

• How many absentee ballots the U.S. Postal Service has in distribution centers that they were unable to deliver, and which post office facilities are operational. Mailing and delivery services were suspended in some ZIP codes as a result of the hurricane.

• Which communities and voters will be unable to send or receive mail.
• Which polling places were impacted by storms, and where temporary polling sites or relocations will be needed.
• Whether the board will need to seek to extend the deadline to return absentee ballots, which is currently 7:30pm on Election Day.
• Whether the board will need to expand who can be a poll worker, in a case where a precinct does not have enough poll workers.
• Whether more funds will be needed to administer elections in certain storm-ravaged areas.

How it works: Voters who have already requested an absentee ballot and need it sent to a new location can contact their county board of election and request that their current ballot be spoiled, or canceled, and have a new one sent. Track your ballot here.

• Voters who have already registered to vote and have moved or been displaced and will not return to their previous address can register with their new address by Oct. 6.
• After Oct. 6, voters who have been displaced should remain registered with their old address, as you must have lived at your current address for 30 days to vote there, state officials said.
• Voters planning to vote by mail can instead destroy their absentee ballot and vote in person, if they choose.
• Voters who cannot present a voter ID due to a natural disaster can complete an exception form when they vote, Brinson Bell said.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to show that the deadline to register to vote in North Carolina is Oct. 11 (not Oct. 6).