The latest factor in voter suppression: Weather

A record number of voters have cast ballots ahead of Election Day, but extreme weather has displaced thousands of others and shuttered polling sites across the country in what climate advocates are calling a new form of disenfranchisement.

Red and blue precincts alike are dealing with disruptions, and people already vulnerable to disenfranchisement — older people, those with disabilities, low-income Americans and people of color — are bearing the brunt of the latest voting challenges.

Wildfires, hurricanes, snow storms and heatwaves have pummeled states from coast to coast. Hurricane Zeta closed early polling sites in the Florida Panhandle. Election judges had to carry ballots to safety from wildfires in Colorado. Ballot boxes were pulled indoors in New Mexico after a record-early snowfall. Freezing temperatures suspended curbside voting in Texas.

The calamities, combined with the pandemic, are testing state and local elections officials like never before. The lessons they learn this year — and the corresponding anxiety over the potential for weather-driven disenfranchisement — could set the stage for a permanent expansion of early and absentee voting.

“As more Americans get exposed to convenience voting, options like mail and early voting, they like it and they want to use it,” said Ben Hovland, chair of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. “This may be a high-water mark for a while, but I guarantee that 2022 and 2024 will see higher mail and early voting than 2016.”

In the past week alone, nearly 3,500 daily weather records were shattered, according to data from the National Centers for Environmental Information. In the past 30 days, as millions of Americans lined up to cast early ballots, more than 17,800 weather records were broken.

Eighteen U.S. weather stations reported record-high temperatures for Oct. 31, including sites in Nevada and California. Sixteen others showed historic snowfall for the date. Parts of Maine broke century-old snowfall records.

After Hurricane Laura hit Louisiana in August, election administrators in Lake Charles consolidated 85 voting locations into three. At least 6,000 residents still displaced in New Orleans, Houston and elsewhere were told to make sure their absentee mail-in ballots were delivered to their temporary addresses.

But mail service is slow or nonexistent for people living in hotels, said Ashley Shelton, executive director of The Power Coalition, a New Orleans-based voting rights and disaster-relief organization. And displaced residents might not have a way to get to Lake Charles, which is a three-hour drive west of New Orleans.

“Unfortunately, I do think many of the displaced will be disenfranchised,” Shelton said.

Election officials have stepped up to make sure every vote is counted, Hovland said, and anecdotal incidents need to be considered in their broader context.

“It’s important we be concerned about every vote. Those stories are important to listen to. But it’s also important to get down to the full story,” he said. Election officials will — and do — work to respond to surprise events, he said.

Climate Power 2020, a progressive advocacy group that has been monitoring the weather’s effect on voting, said older adults, lower-income households and communities of color are most affected by the extreme temperatures and storms.

“This is not a criticism of election officials, who are doing God’s work. But you cannot discount that the extreme weather is making it harder for individuals to vote,” said Lauren French, the group’s spokesperson. “A two-day close of a polling location might actually be the deciding factor of whether they can vote or not.”

In March 2019, the Election Assistance Commission, a clearinghouse for best practices and standards, launched a disaster preparedness working group to share ideas. But the commission, an independent agency launched with much fanfare after the 2000 Bush v. Gore recount exposed weaknesses in the system, has been running on fumes for a decade as some lawmakers have sought to kill it. Between 2010 and 2019 its operating budget was cut nearly 60 percent, according to the Congressional Research Service. From December 2010 to January 2015, the commission lacked a policymaking quorum.

Some funding was restored this year, Hovland said, after foreign interference in the 2016 presidential election prompted a new recognition of the agency’s value. Congress increased the agency’s operating budget from $7.7 million in 2019 to nearly $11.2 million in 2020.

“It’s a no-brainer to have a program that’s dedicated to collecting these lessons, helping people prepare for weather-related events. But that takes money,” Hovland said. “We can share those best practices certainly as we see weather trends increase. I think that will become even more relevant.”

Election officials, already under siege by court challenges over ballot counting, now also need to have disaster contingency plans to prepare for even the most mundane problems. After Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey in October 2012, the state allowed people to cast ballots online, by email and by fax. The response crashed computer systems and drained fax machines of toner. One election officer gave out his personal email address that year and told voters to scan and email their ballots.

This year, election officials — and voters — again are doing what they can. In October, Lake Charles evacuees J. Thaddeus Chenier and K. Sherrie Wilson came up with a plan: What started as a Facebook post offering people a ride to the polls has become Operation Unite, raising about $5,000. On Election Day, three buses and two vans will shuttle displaced voters from New Orleans to a polling site in Lake Charles.

Chenier expects 150 people to hitch a ride Tuesday, in addition to more than 200 others who have taken him up on his offer since mid-October.

“Many of the evacuees who are struggling are those who lived in minority neighborhoods.” Wilson said. “I find this to be a form of voter suppression.”