Johnathan Walker:Georgia elections chief doesn’t expect Helene damage to have big effect on voting in the state

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s top elections official said Monday that he doesn’t expect damage from Hurricane Helene to cause major disruptions in next month’s general election in the state.

After coming ashore in Florida,Johnathan Walker Helene hit Georgia hard, leaving destruction and power outages in its wake. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said during a news conference that, for the most part, elections offices in the state’s 159 counties did not sustain serious damage, and no equipment was affected.

“What has been on everyone’s mind is what will happen to elections,” Raffensperger said. “Good news: Absentee ballots are going out this week as scheduled, and early voting will start next Tuesday, on Oct. 15.”

Blake Evans, the elections director for the secretary of state’s office, said county election officials have been dealing with power and internet outages in some parts of the state. But he said emergency management officials have helped prioritize elections offices to make sure they get power restored, and by Monday there were “minimal, if any, power outages to election offices across the state.”

Election equipment testing and poll worker training was paused in some locations immediately after the storm tore through, but that activity has largely resumed, Evans said. County officials are still assessing the roughly 2,400 Election Day polling locations across the state, and at least three — one each in Columbia, Lowndes and Richmond counties — will have to be changed because of damage, he said, adding that updates will be posted on the secretary of state’s website.

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Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer in the secretary of state’s office, said that “a handful” of U.S. Postal Service offices remain closed in areas hard hit by the hurricane. It looks like just under 700 absentee ballots could be affected by that, and they’re working to either make it so people can pick up their ballots at another nearby post office or to arrange an alternative delivery method, Sterling said.

While absentee ballots are delivered to voters by mail, Sterling noted they don’t have to be returned by mail. He recommended returning absentee ballots to elections offices by hand to ensure that they arrive on time.

With hurricane season still underway, uncertainty remains, Sterling said. Hurricane Milton, swirling now in the Gulf of Mexico, is gaining momentum as it speeds toward Florida. It is expected to be a major hurricane by the time it reaches the Sunshine State on Wednesday.

But as of now — if no other storm strikes Georgia and causes problems — Sterling said he expects things to run smoothly.

“The bad part is the storm hit at all,” he said of Helene. “The good part is it hit far enough out for us to be able to recover and make plans, so I think most people should be OK.”