News

Steady stream of voters turns out on a drizzly day

Gerton Fire Department was one of the polling places in an area of the county hard hit by Helene.

By Lisa Rab and Sara Murphy, Published: November 6, 2024

Before showing up to vote Tuesday morning at Etowah Elementary School, Amelia Jones had to weigh which was more urgent: finding a place to live or deciding the future of her country.

Jones, 31, is a nurse who lost her home in Hurricane Helene and has been staying with friends since the storm. She said she was too focused on her housing search to vote early, but made time today to cast her ballot.

“As a woman, I’m really afraid of losing specific rights,” she said. If more people lose access to abortion, she’s worried that “things will get desperate. We’ll see a lot of horrible things, healthcare-wise.” She planned to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Jones was part of a slow but steady stream of people who showed up in a misty rain to vote at the school. Nearby at the Etowah Library, a short line had formed just after 8 a.m., but no real crowds, as there had been during early voting.

“It was so crazy here last week,” said David Buckingham, chief election judge for the precinct. He said 2,800 people voted at the library after the state legislature required the county to open more early voting sites. According to data from the North Carolina Board of Elections, 54.8% of Henderson County’s 92,217 registered voters voted early.

Turnout was light and voters have been respectful. Most people are filling out paper ballots by hand, Buckingham said, because they find it faster than using the voting machines. “I don’t know what to expect,” he said of the turnout. “We’re prepared for anything.”

Henderson County is known to be a Republican stronghold, with 44 percent of its voters registered unaffiliated, 36 percent Republican and 19 percent Democrat. One mother of four, who declined to give her name, said she voted because “I just don’t want a woman to be president.”

At the Gerton Fire Department in Henderson County, voters trickled in one at a time in the early afternoon. Once the rain stopped, the pace picked up, although at most two people waited in line in the back room behind the fire truck bays.

The department was an early voting site as well, replacing the Bat Cave Fire Department after it was damaged in the storm. The precinct has approximately 900 registered voters, according to precinct judge Joy Huntley.

For Gina Tines, it was her first time voting. She said she backpacked for many years in the U.S. and abroad and never felt informed enough about candidates to vote.

“I'm not going to vote blindly,” she said. But this time, “I have a direction that I would like it to go.” She wouldn’t say how she voted.

Even so, she wasn’t completely sure she would make it to the polls. Tines, who lives between Bat Cave and Edneyville, suffered property damage during the storm and still deals with blocked and damaged roads, which have doubled her regular hour long commute into Fairview. Worst of all, her dog died after drinking flood water. “My grief cycle is big these days,” she said. Voting was a last-minute decision, but she was glad she did it.

For Lucy Taylor, women’s health was the issue that mattered most to her and led to her casting a vote for Kamala Harris. She also mentioned climate change, “although it didn't really seem to be a big issue in this election.” Her house, luckily, escaped damage from Helene, though she said her backyard washed away.

The speed with which the roads have been repaired impressed Taylor, but she lives so close to the Gerton Fire Department that she had no concerns about getting there or waiting to vote.

“That's why I didn't early vote,” Taylor said. “I knew it would be very simple.”

Although a steady rain fell outside the Larry T. Justus Western NC Justice Academy in Edneyville, voters streamed in at a steady pace.

Catherine Rausch, 71, said she voted for Democrats up and down the ballot.

“Anybody who would align themselves with the Republicans who nominated Donald Trump has no ethics, no morals, and no integrity, and should not be allowed to be in the position of influence or power,” she said.

“He's turned me into a one issue voter,” Rausch added of Trump.

She said that the process of voting had gone smoothly, even though there was trouble with one of the voting machines. A poll worker even swore to Rausch that her vote would be counted, she said, though Rausch said she had no concerns about that. “I have no problems with it,” she said.

While Rausch voted at her usual precinct, Max Kerlin, 72, was one of the residents of Henderson County who was re-routed to the Justus Academy because of the damage to roads and bridges leading to the Bat Cave Fire Department. In fact, right after the storm, he had been helicoptered from his home in Bat Cave due to the condition of the roads and onto the police academy playing field. “So this is a special place,” he said.

Once airlifted from his home, Kerlin evacuated to Florida, where he received a forwarded letter with information about the change to his polling site. He returned a couple of days ago, just in time to vote. He has not found any damage to his home. However, “I haven't been in the crawl space yet,” he said.

While he did not want to say whom he voted for, Kerlin said his experience with disaster relief had been good. “I've had contact with FEMA. I got my $750 [FEMA Serious Needs Assistance check]. My insurance company has been great,” he said.

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Sara Murphy is a freelance writer based outside of Asheville, North Carolina. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, and other media. Lisa Rab, whose work has appeared in The Washington Post Magazine and Politico Magazine, lives in Western North Carolina. Find more of her work at lisarab.substack.com. This story was produced by the WNC Election Hub, a project of the NC Local News Workshop, in partnership with The Assembly and funded with generous support from the Knight Election Integrity initiative.