US key state faces poll uncertainty after storm ravages multiple counties

North Carolina election officials say they will do everything in their power to ensure that voters in the crucial presidential swing state will be able to cast their ballots despite the devastation of Hurricane Helene and the destruction of basic infrastructure only about a month before the November election.

Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the state's election board, said on Tuesday that 12 county election offices in the hard-hit western part of the state remain closed after the storm unleashed "unprecedented" damage. Absentee ballots, some of which already have been mailed to voters who requested them, also face obstacles, from US Postal Service delays to road and residential damage that could render them undeliverable. The viability of early and Election Day voting sites remains unknown, she said.

She described the storm as causing a "daunting" level of uncertainty, with early in-person voting scheduled to start in just over two weeks on October 17. Still, she said .