North Carolina Sets New Record For Early Voter Turnout

North Carolinians still recovering from a devastating hurricane set a new record on the first day of early voting in the state.

Amid the ongoing aid effort following Hurricane Helene, 353,166 early voters cast their ballots on Thursday to determine if former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris will take the White House. That tally just barely squeaked ahead of the previous first-day record, when 348,599 people voted on day one in 2020.

Fellow battleground state Georgia also broke its record for first-day early voter turnout earlier this week. More than 300,000 people cast votes in Georgia on Tuesday, with nearly 300,000 more votes cast on Wednesday.

Helene devastated the western part of the state, isolating the mountain city of Asheville and nearly erasing the tiny town of Chimney Rock Village. The new data shows it hasn’t deterred voters even in that hard-hit region from turning out.

“I know that thousands of North Carolinians lost so much in this storm,” Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the state board of elections, said Thursday. “Their lives will never be the same after this tragedy. But one thing Helene did not take from western North Carolinians is the right to vote in this important election.”

Asheville resident Bill Whalen, 75, told The Associated Press that in his community, “there’s a widespread understanding of the importance of this election and how important it is to vote.”