Some voting places in the High Country have changed due to Helene

Cleanup and restoration operations are continuing in many North Carolina mountain counties more than a month after Helene carved a destructive path across the area. That’s led to changes to some High Country counties on Election Day.

In Yancey County, elections officials have erected four 20-by-66-foot tents to serve as polling sites after the original voting locations suffered too much damage to be usable.

In Avery County, 11 precincts were either moved or combined with another due to the impact of the storm. Ashe County had to make similar adjustments.

Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the state Board of Elections, says voters have been informed about the changes by mailings and notices in county offices and relief sites.

“It was a minimum number of those changes," she says. "And so we're hoping that by being able to maintain — either at the site that they're accustomed to or very close by — that we will limit any confusion for the voter about where their Election Day sites are located.”

Brinson Bell says Friday’s figures from early voting in Helene’s disaster counties show higher turnout compared to the rest of the state.