CHARLOTTE, N.C.—North Carolina’s election season has been anything but normal.
Hurricane Helene ravaged 25 counties in the western part of the state, leading former President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to say that he initially thought that only half of the voters in those mostly conservative-leaning communities would head to the polls.
Instead, the North Carolina State Board of Elections reported that more than 4.2 million ballots were cast during the state’s early voting period, which ended on Nov. 3.
Early voters in the 25 counties that were impacted by Helene turned out 2 percent higher than the state average.
Todd Andrews and his wife, Mary Andrews, live at the end of a long gravel road atop a mountain outside of Old Fort, North Carolina, in an area that was hard hit by flooding and mudslides from Helene….