Photo via Melissa Sue Gerrits / Stringer / Getty Images
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During the last week of September 2024, Hurricane Helene devastated the southeastern portion of the United States. The aftermath left communities to battle landslides, unusable roads, and power blackouts. The category four hurricane made its way through the Florida Gulf coast, but Helene’s most significant impacts were across the southern Appalachians, which saw billions of dollars in property damage. The death toll so far is over 220, with over half of those deaths occurring in North Carolina. Communities across the southeast are still struggling to recover as people remain without power. Helene has become the deadliest mainland hurricane since Katrina in 2005, but the government’s response has yielded a multitude of polarized attitudes raging across the South.
Research shows that major natural disasters can affect voter turnout and preference. This was observed during Hurricane Sandy, which hit the northeastern portion of the United States in 2012. After news coverage aired showing former President Barack Obama’s proactive handling of the aftermath, the general public developed a more positive attitude toward him.
In the case of Helene’s aftermath, there is a question of how it could affect voter turnout in Georgia and North Carolina. Both states are categorized as swing states, collectively harboring 32 electoral votes. Both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have visited Georgia and North Carolina since the hurricane. For Trump, the challenge lies in taking hold of the Republican areas of both states. Trump won North Carolina in the 2020 election, while only losing Georgia by a little over 11,000 votes. Polls currently indicate that Trump is leading by about one percentage point in both states.
However, this has developed into the spread of mass misinformation via social media, leading to a shift in the attitudes of the affected populations. Shortly after the storm hit, Trump took to social media to make false statements regarding the handling of the disaster. During his visit to Georgia, Trump falsely claimed that President Joe Biden had yet to answer calls from Georgia’s governor, despite Governor Kemp telling reporters that he had spoken with Biden just the day before. That same day, Trump once again took to social media to discuss “reports” about North Carolina regarding the federal government going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas. Trump never clarified what reports he referred to in the tweets and avoided expanding on his claim when he was later asked about it during a live news report. Meanwhile, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the government agency that coordinates federal responses to natural disasters, had to create a response page to address the falsehoods that have been spreading about the government’s response to the disaster.
Another impact Hurricane Helene could have on the upcoming election concerns voter altercations and turnout. The massive flooding and destruction caused in both states have posed problems for how they are going to help people register to vote. Whether it’s seen through the extension of the registration deadline or statistics regarding absentee ballots, the disaster will have an effect on voting. In North Carolina, 40,000 absentee ballots were mailed to 25 counties that were deemed heavily affected by the hurricane. However, the effort has not been reciprocated by the residents of said counties, as only 1,000 ballots have been mailed back thus far. However, this is most likely due to the fact that these residents are currently dealing with the aftermath of the hurricane, which will cause a delay in the voting process.
This situation also highlights a more significant issue: the communities affected not feeling like they are being helped adequately, and as a result falling into anti-government rhetoric. It is common for natural disasters to evoke feelings of fear and chaos, and people in these situations can be prone to fall for misinformation if it provides them comfort and reassurance. Essentially, the rumors and misinformation tap into people’s preconceived political notions. This tracks when contextualized in the South, with it being historically more conservative. In short, the combination of the misinformation and the “lack” of government aid acts as a catalyst for vulnerable right-wing populations to solidify their potential vote for Trump in the upcoming election, further emphasizing the political leverage this disaster has presented.
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This article was edited by Graham Thoresen.
