As residents of the Southeast struggle to piece their lives back together amid the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene, experts are raising the alarm that a significant number of voters in affected areas, which are predominantly conservative regions in the swing states of North Carolina and Georgia, are facing unprecedented challenges in being able to cast their vote in the November election.

Last week, the election integrity watchdog group Election Transparency Initiative released a statement imploring North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper (D) to take more decisive action in helping to offer adequate voting options for the 22 counties in the western part of the state that have been the most severely affected, with many of the counties still dealing with impassable roads, power outages, and no running water.

“As rescuing survivors and repairing damage continues in North Carolina, the alarming lack of state-level adjustment regarding the conduct of this year’s election has begun to appear intentional on the part of Democrat Governor Cooper and his allies,” the statement noted. “Following the first emergency meeting of the State Board of Elections (NCSBE), with early voting just two weeks away, they did nothing.” (Emphasis in original.)

The group went on to note that “serious concerns” have arisen regarding how residents of nursing homes who have been relocated from western counties will be able to vote. The amount of polling sites that are currently unserviceable remains “unknown,” the group reported. In addition, because of the indefinite suspension of the Postal Service in many of these counties, voting by mail is currently “completely disrupt[ed].”

“North Carolina’s Governor Cooper has been shockingly inactive, as have his allies on the State Board,” remarked Ken Cuccinelli, former Acting Deputy DHS Secretary and attorney general of Virginia and current national chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative. “We call on Gov. Cooper and the State Board to stop stalling and start working to ensure that those communities already devastated by Helene at least have their voice through their votes in this year’s election.”

“Every day in which Gov. Cooper continues to stall ensures his suppression of the votes of his fellow Tarheels,” Cuccinelli added.

With North Carolina being a key battleground state that could decide the outcome of the 2024 presidential race, the most affected counties in the Tarheel State are staunchly conservative. As reported by The Federalist, “28 counties and tribal areas included in the emergency declaration are Republican strongholds.” An analysis by the outlet revealed that “604,119 voters in the emergency declaration region cast their ballots for Trump in 2020, while 356,902 chose President Joe Biden. That 247,217-vote difference is more than three times Trump’s margin of victory [of about 75,000 votes] in 2020.”

Perhaps in response to the concerns being raised, the NCSBE unanimously voted on Monday to “allow 13 counties most affected by the storm to make changes in election procedures, so long as there is a bipartisan majority to do so.” These procedures would include “changing or adding voting sites and notifying voters by mail and through local media about such changes as quickly as possible. The resolution adopted by the state board allows the chairman of local election boards to appoint replacement members if someone is unable to carry out his or her duties.”

Still, concerns remain about voters being disenfranchised from the disaster areas within North Carolina. In a Townhall op-ed Monday, former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell pointed out that out of “approximately 40,000 mail ballots sent to voters in counties heavily impacted by Helene” only “1,000 [have been] returned thus far.”

Blackwell, who serves as senior fellow for Human Rights and Constitutional Governance at Family Research Council, went on to argue that despite the difficulties facing the most impacted North Carolina counties, efforts to mitigate the challenges to voting must be narrowly tailored.

“[S]weeping changes could erode public confidence in the fairness of the election, at a time when trust in our electoral system is already fragile,” he observed. “By focusing relief and voting accommodations solely on the counties impacted by Hurricane Helene, North Carolina can ensure that every eligible voter is able to participate without inviting unnecessary controversy.”

“North Carolina deserves a fair election, and that means helping those in need while preserving the integrity of the process for everyone else,” Blackwell concluded.