Election officials now admit that voting will be a real challenge in 25 North Carolina counties devastated by Hurricane Helene

The vast majority of those most affected will be Republican and independent voters, and now a second hurricane is bearing down on conservative counties in Florida, expected to make landfall Wednesday.

Elections officials in North Carolina are now openly warning that voting in some parts of this key battleground state might be impacted due to Hurricane Helene’s devastation. And the impact, according to the numbers, is going to be strongest in overwhelmingly Republican counties where voters are likely going to struggle to get ballots mailed in on time due to their lives being upended by the hurricane.

The Epoch Times reports that during Helene, critical infrastructure in large swaths of western North Carolina and especially parts of the Appalachian Mountain areas were damaged or totally wiped out.

Without power, voting machines don’t work.

And the U.S. Postal Service may not be able to pick up or deliver mail from the hardest hit areas where mailing in a ballot might be the only option.

Walking or driving to a polling place on Election Day may also be a no go.

Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, told NPR on Tuesday:

“There may be polli…