BOONE, N.C. — Voters in western North Carolina made their way to the polls in record numbers according to election officials.
This happened even with Helene cleanup efforts still looming
Roads are still destroyed and many people are still trying to pick up the pieces. To accommodate for those voters, there were voting site location changes, exceptions for lost photo IDs, adjusted hours for polling places, and some counties even had tents set up for voters.
Election officials say they were surprised by the number of people who came out but even more surprised that they managed to get the help they needed.
“With everything everybody’s been dealing with, we didn’t know five weeks ago that we could come up with 200 people to pull this election off,” Matt Snyder, the Director of Elections for Watauga County, said to WCNC Charlotte.
Voters say they hope now that the focus is off of the election, everyone can get back to focusing on recovery.
“At the end of the day, no matter who’s our president we’re still a community. We still have to keep living our days on and on doing what we do as people,” Caitlin Boose, a young voter in Boone, said. “We’ve done a good job about cleaning up and getting back as a community, I think now it’s about helping the communities around us who aren’t doing as well."
Contact Anna King at aking2@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X, and Instagram.