AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

We look now at how Hurricane Helene is impacting efforts to keep voting on track in the hard-hit areas of North Carolina, just weeks ahead of the November 5th election. Early voting begins there in two weeks, October 17th.

We’re going now to Raleigh, where we’re joined by Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, which advocates for voting rights in this battleground state.

The effect of the storm has been catastrophic. Can you describe how this affects — not what everyone is thinking about right now as they battle for their businesses, for their homes, for their very lives, but how this is affecting voting in North Carolina, Bob?

BOB PHILLIPS: Yes, Amy, and thank you for having me on.

And really, to answer that question is, it’s unknown. We are still obviously in rescue and recovery here in the 25-county region of North Carolina, and it’s really hard to know exactly what this is going to mean for the election. And we’re almost having to compartmentalize in our own heads, the whole state, about how we have this disaster, we’re trying to help our friends and fellow citizens in North Carolina, but there’s this important election in the backdrop. Election officials feel very confident that they can do all they can to do what we want, and that is to make sure that every voter in western North Carolina has equal access to the ballot.

AMY GOODMAN: So, explain exactly how it works. You know, we often talk about Election Day is November 5th. But, in fact, that’s not the case.

BOB PHILLIPS: That’s true. Our early voting, as you mentioned at the top, starts October 17th. And over the last few election cycles, overwhelmingly, more people in North Carolina choose to vote early as opposed to Election Day. Obviously, with early voting sites and even Election Day sites in some areas perhaps damaged and not being available, there are going to have to be some decisions made about creating what might be, we call, super voting sites. But that’s one part of it.

Then you have vote by mail. We certainly had a record-breaking number of people utilize absentee ballot voting in the 2020 pandemic election. In the 25 counties, to date, there have been about 38,000 requests for a mail-in ballot, and only a thousand returned. So that means 37,000 might be lost, or just people have not received the ballot. But that is another big concern, obviously, and something that election officials and ultimately the North Carolina Legislature will have to address, making some adjustments, again, to make sure that somehow people can vote.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the suspension of mail service right now that could prevent mail-in ballots from being sent or people mailing them in?

BOB PHILLIPS: Indeed, mail service throughout western North Carolina, the 25-county region, is suspended. There are a number of post offices that were damaged and destroyed, as well. And, Amy, I honestly don’t know how that’s going to work, because I think so many roads in North Carolina are just impassable. It is a region of our state that has lots of these twisty, curvy, two-lane roads, and we still don’t know the impact. And just hearing these stories of people not being able to get away from their homes, or certainly the mail service not going to be able to be delivered, it’s just hard to imagine how will absentee ballot voting even be practicable. But it has to be something that is available.

We may see a relaxing — at least this is what we would like to see — of having what we call a grace period, and that is when an absentee ballot arrives with a proper postmark after the election, it can still count. We used to have that in North Carolina, but, unfortunately, the North Carolina General Assembly repealed that last year.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, this is all very significant, because 23 of the 25 counties designated to get federal disaster assistance are Republican, voted for Donald Trump in 2020, and yet it’s the Republicans who have cracked down on voting rights and timetables. So, talk about the significance of this.

BOB PHILLIPS: Very significant. The 25 counties represent about 17% of the North Carolina electorate, 1.2 million voters. North Carolina, as many of your viewers and listeners know, is a 50/50 state. We are a battleground state, certainly, in this election. That part of our state does tend to be much stronger — much more of a stronghold for Republicans. Many of those counties, those 23 of 25, went as high as 70/30 or 80/20 for Trump four years ago.

The Republican Legislature is coming back to Raleigh next week. Obviously, they’re looking at emergency funds and a whole host of other things that must be done addressing roads and schools and just human needs. But they will have to also look at, again, what we’re talking about: How can we make sure that all the citizens in the west can cast a ballot? We don’t know yet — we’re talking to them — what they will do, but my expectation is politics will be put aside, and good decisions will be made.

AMY GOODMAN: Hurricane Helene, as you talked about, has destroyed roads and bridges. Many people have lost their homes and businesses. So, if you can talk about: Does North Carolina have voter ID laws that include any kind of natural disaster exception? Of course, it’s the Republicans who are cracking down on those who are eligible to vote, and purging voter rolls. And yet, now what will happen? What will you need to present at the polls, if anything?

BOB PHILLIPS: Yeah, Amy, that’s a very relevant question, because this is the first presidential election — excuse me — that we have had to have a voter ID to be able to obtain a ballot. There are exceptions already in our law that people can use, including lost ID. The counties that are designated as federal disaster also have that waiver. That is according to our State Board of Elections director. So, that should not be a problem. If someone goes to the poll and they do not have an ID, they will not have to show it. They should have that exception, is what we’re hearing from our State Board of Elections director and what is already in the law.

I think the other thing, though, we think about, and we just don’t know, is how many folks in that region of the state are really going to have the will to vote when they’re facing so many other challenges. So much of western North Carolina does not have water. And we keep hearing, over and over, many residents who can get out are. They’re coming to other places in North Carolina, or they’re going to other states. And one important thing for those folks to know is that they can request an absentee ballot and have it be sent to where they are, versus the residence that may be destroyed in western North Carolina.

AMY GOODMAN: So, as the Legislature convenes next week — Bob Phillips is executive director of Common Cause North Carolina — what are you going to be recommending? I mean, you have right now — nothing to do with the storm, although perhaps it’s a storm of another kind — in Georgia, the Republican-led electoral board says — the Election Board says all ballots must be hand-counted. In North Carolina, might they say, “OK, November 5th won’t be the end of the election,” that they’ll extend voting in the state, which, of course, would challenge the entire system in the United States for getting results?

BOB PHILLIPS: Well, knowing we’re a 50/50 state, and we all have that worry that this is going to be somehow held up and used by certain people who may not accept the outcome of whatever the election bears here in North Carolina, that is a very legitimate concern.

What I’m going to be doing next week in Raleigh is advocating for flexibility for these local board of elections to have regarding where they open up these polling sites on early voting and Election Day, and including the hours that they operate. So that’s one part of it. The other part is, with poll workers, the good folks who volunteer and get paid a very small stipend to do and work in the polling sites in the early voting and Election Day, we’ve got to have flexibility there, where folks can come in from maybe even other counties to do that kind of work, as well.

As far as the absentee ballot voting, again, as I mentioned, lawmakers should put this grace period back, and that is if we can get a vote by mail available for the western citizens of North Carolina, the voters, that their ballot will count if it’s postmarked properly, up to nine days after the election. And that’s the canvass period, what we call, when the ballots are officially counted.

Again, I am sometimes accused of being naive. My hope, though, is that everybody can come together and work together and pass and adopt the policies and laws that are needed to address this crisis that we have in our state.

AMY GOODMAN: And finally, Bob, I would ask you this question if there wasn’t a storm, but it’s a Washington Post report today. “More than three years after Attorney General Merrick Garland created a federal Election Threats Task Force, local elections officials have made more than 2,000 reports of disruptive protesters and menacing emails, phone messages and social media posts. The most jarring have threatened murder, rape, mass shootings, bombings and violence against children.” What have you found in your state?

BOB PHILLIPS: Unfortunately, the election deniers, as I will call them, have put pressure on many of these local county board of directors and members who serve on that local county board, which is — it’s split, three Democrats and two Republicans. We have a hundred counties in North Carolina, ranging from a million folks in some counties to 2,000 or 3000 in others. And I think all the election directors, unfortunately, have felt some kind of outside pressure. And we’ve had, unfortunately, too, I think, as many as half of our election directors since the 2020 election leave their jobs. They are not paid a lot of money, for one, and then, when they have this kind of pressure, that just adds to their decisions to decide it’s time to leave. A lot of institutional knowledge we’re missing. So that is a concern.

And certainly, we are seeing some of that here in North Carolina, which you would expect, being a battleground state. There’s also a woman named Cleta Mitchell. Some of your viewers and listeners would know her. She was an attorney for Donald Trump. She lives in North Carolina. She has an organization that has been pushing a lot of the election denial narrative and, I think, contributes to some of the pressure on our local election officials.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Bob Phillips, thanks so much for being with us, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, speaking to us from Raleigh. Common Cause North Carolina, a statewide nonpartisan group advocating for voting rights. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.