After bungled response to Helene, demand a squeaky-clean election

Hurricane Helene has devastated parts of Georgia, east Tennessee and particularly western North Carolina. The death and destruction it dealt to unprepared mountain communities has been catastrophic. More than a week later, roads are still closed, thousands lack electricity, and hundreds of people are missing amid an unimpressive response from federal and state governments.So leave it to Politico to ask the big question: Is this good for the Democrats?“The parts of western North Carolina and eastern Georgia that were flooded by the monster storm are largely Republican,” the outlet noted.“In 2020, [Donald Trump] won 61% percent of the vote in the North Carolina counties that were declared a disaster after Helene.

He won 54% of the vote in Georgia’s disaster counties.”That’s right: The horrors wrought by the hurricane will make it hard for people in those areas to vote. Since those areas were big sources of Trump votes in the past, this could cost Trump two fairly large states that he’s now leading by just a percentage point or two — possibly swinging the 2024 election.You can call this analysis crass, and people have.But Politico’s not wrong: In a close election, even minor changes in turnout can flip a state, and there are bound to be some changes in turnout after this disaster.People who are without power, short of food and unable to get to their jobs may be less motivated to show up to vote, or even to mail in an absentee or emergency ballot.And of course in politically polarized times, which these are, some people are wondering if the federal government and the state of North Carolina, both controlled by Democrats, are slow-rolling the recovery efforts in red counties with the election in mind. “There’s definitely a layer of politics on top of any decision they make, given what happened after COVID,” Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, told the Politico reporter.Conservative columnist Matt V...