Watauga Co. election workers prepare for early voting in midst of Helene recovery

BOONE, N.C. ( QUEEN CITY NEWS ) — In a little more than a week, early voting will start in counties across North Carolina, some of which are dealing with the devastating effects of Helene.

Election officials in Watauga County are working to make sure everyone can cast a ballot. They’re trying to figure out how to reach voters when communication is spotty, roads are washed away and power is shut off. It’s a challenge the Board of Elections Director Matt Snyder hasn’t dealt with.

Queen City News asked Snyder if he thinks this will affect voter turnout.

“Our goal is for that answer to be no,” he said. “We really are trying to think of everything we can and find every resource we can to make sure every single North Carolina voter or every Watauga County voter gets to vote no matter what.”

The work for Snyder hasn’t stopped, despite the catastrophic damage left behind by Helene. A machine called an “ARK election in a box” allowed him to keep operations running at the Board of Elections office when the rest of the area was cut off from communications.

“The ARK unit, which is a satellite phone connection unit, allows us to go directly to the State Board of Elections website plug in our laptops and connect through them,” said Snyder.

Snyder’s main focus has been figuring out if early voting polling locations are in good shape.

“Where we have a few issues to deal with are going to be where those sites are also being used for emergency distribution points or they’re using emergency personnel coming in our area to help folks,” he said.

He’s hoping to use that to his advantage by possibly sending multi-partisan assistance teams, which usually help voters at nursing homes and other facilities, to meet people at distribution points.

“That way we can go out to the voters where they’re coming in to get water and supplies and to process, allow them to request an absentee by mail ballot there on the spot, give them that ballot, have them vote that ballot, and then it goes back into a container envelope, just like all the other absentee ballots that come back to the office,” he said.

Snyder said he has two more meetings this week and hopes by Friday he’ll have a better idea of any changes voters need to know about before early voting starts on October 17. He hopes despite what everyone is dealing with they’ll make it a priority to make their voices heard at the ballot box.

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