Hurricane Helene Scrambles Early Voting at UNC-Asheville

North Carolina’s college voters could be a deciding factor in the presidential election. But Hurricane Helene has brought new challenges to turning out a group of voters that is already unreliable.  

At UNC-Asheville, the weekend before the election will be a frenzy for freshman Steven Nguyen, who’s one of a handful of students leading a nonpartisan effort there to maximize voter turnout. Students are only starting to trickle back to campus this week after evacuating due to the storm. Meanwhile, the early voting window ends Saturday, and with it, the final opportunity to register and vote at the same time.

“That makes it harder for us, because there are some students who have either registered to a different state or they haven’t registered yet, and that’s where early voting helps the most,” said Nguyen, 18. “But with that not an option for those people, we are really out of luck with helping them.”

Campus was quiet Tuesday afternoon, save the sound of a breeze sending fallen leaves scuttling across the sidewalks near empty bike racks. The student union, originally designated as an early voting site before it was moved to the campus health center after Helene, was empty. 

Nguyen is staying with a friend until he moves back into his dorm Friday under the university’s staggered move-in schedule. He voted early in Buncombe County, and he’s very involved in this election. Besides working to turn out his fellow students, he showed up to the health center around noon Tuesday to conduct nonpartisan exit polls for UNC-Charlotte research on Helene’s election impact. 

UNCA, Appalachian State University, and Western Carolina University all have early voting sites on campus, which in the past two presidential elections were the top in-person voting sites for 18- to 22-year-olds in their respective counties, according to data compiled by the John Locke Foundation’s VoteTracker.

College-age turnout at Appalachian State’s early voting site six days ahead of Election Day was higher than at the same point in 2020, and at WCU, turnout isn’t far behind what it was at this point four years ago. At UNCA, however, college-age turnout is half of what it was at the same time in 2020. 

Michael Bitzer, professor and politics department chair at Catawba College, said North Carolina’s Generation Z and Millennial voters are significantly underperforming compared to other age groups in early voting turnout, compared to their share of the overall pool of registered voters. If younger voters make up ground in participation by Election Day, it could mark a “tectonic shift” in politics, he said. 

North Carolina is one of the top states in the country where young people could sway the presidential race, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts. The race here is essentially a toss-up, pollsters say. Democratic nominee Kamala Harris holds a 9-point lead over Republican Donald Trump among registered 18- to 29-year-old voters in key battleground states, including North Carolina, this month’s Harvard Youth Poll found.  

College students generally have some of the lowest turnout rates among voters, but in 2020, they went to the polls in record numbers. 

That year, 81 percent of eligible UNCA students voted, and the majority of them voted early, according to estimates from the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement at Tufts University. The same study found students at Western Carolina University and Appalachian State University turned out at rates higher than the national student average of 66 percent. 

Still, 18- to 25-year-olds comprised 13 percent of North Carolina’s total registered voters in 2020, but they made up roughly 11 percent of people who cast ballots. Older voters in the state had an outsized impact on the outcome: People 41 and older, who make up about 62 percent of registered voters, accounted for 68 percent of ballots cast.

Generation Z and Millennials see the government as capable of solving problems, which is a distinct philosophy from other age groups, but their political participation doesn’t always reflect that, Bitzer said. 

“We have to recognize that both generations are the children of polarized politics, that they have known nothing than the two parties at loggerheads with each other,” Bitzer said. “Maybe they’re just being turned off by the constant negativism, the tribalism of our politics.”

Polls ahead of the election show the economy, guns, and climate change are top issues for young voters. Some students have cited the war in Gaza as a factor in considering how or whether to vote.

Josie Steele, 22, a senior at UNCA, said her vote is most informed by social issues and the environment. 

“The political situation at the moment is really inspiring to just get out there and vote,” said Steele, who’s an unaffiliated voter. She said she voted in Asheville in 2020 and planned to do the same this year before the storm hit. After Helene pushed her home to Durham, she cast her ballot there during early voting. 

Nguyen and other members of the student-led group UNCA Votes had been planning ways to get their peers to the polls since August. But once Helene hit, “we were in the dark about what was gonna happen next,” Nguyen said. 

The group pivoted to online activism: It emailed students a post-Helene voting guide and held a virtual information session last week. As students return, Nguyen said the group will arrange shuttles or carpool services to voting sites and go door-to-door to encourage people to vote. But the efforts have been hard to plan while the group members have been scattered from the storm, he said.  

WCU and Appalachian State didn’t evacuate like UNCA did, so campus groups there have held some in-person events. Students at those schools have also used social media to share voting information. 

Nguyen, a registered Democrat, said he’s motivated to participate in politics because as a kid, he witnessed his parents lose their manufacturing jobs during the recession. His family moved from San Diego to Raleigh as a result, and he said the change made him realize how state government impacts his daily life. How does it feel to have cast his first vote in a presidential election? He let out a small sigh. 

“My vote is definitely more influential compared to if I were to cast my votes in previous cycles, just because of how tight and close and important North Carolina is for the electoral college,” said Nguyen, who voted for Harris. “But with so much weight on my vote, it’s kind of scary where things might go this election.”

How to vote if you’re a college student impacted by Helene

During the early voting period, which lasts through Saturday, November 2, people can register and vote on the same day. To find hours of operation for each site, visit the early voting site search.

Some displaced students might opt to vote by absentee ballot rather than in person, Bitzer said. 

Though the general deadline to request an absentee ballot has passed, registered voters in counties impacted by Helene—including those where all three universities are located—can visit their county board of elections office during business hours and complete the ballot until 5 p.m. on November 4. 

If voters registered in Helene-affected counties received an absentee ballot, they can deliver it to the state Board of Elections office or any county board of elections office or early voting site during operating hours. 

Voters have to show a photo ID to cast a ballot, but many student IDs from public and private colleges are accepted, including those issued by UNCA, Appalachian State, and WCU. For the full list of acceptable student and employee IDs, visit the State Board of Elections website.

For answers to frequently asked questions on voting in areas affected by Helene, visit ncsbe.gov/helene.

Emily Vespa is a freelance journalist and a recent graduate of North Carolina State University.

This story was produced by the WNC Election Hub, a project of the NC Local News Workshop, in partnership with The Assembly.