On Sept. 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene made landfall in the southeast United States. On Oct. 9, 2024, Hurricane Milton made landfall in the region. The hurricanes caused damage and casualties in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) designated which counties in these states were eligible to apply for individual federal assistance. Ballotpedia compared the mail-in ballot return rates by voters in FEMA-designated disaster counties with voters in counties that were not designated disaster counties in states affected by the hurricane for which mail-in ballot data was readily available.

North Carolina

North Carolina county boards of elections began distributing mail-in ballots to voters who requested them on Sept. 24. Between Sept. 24 and Oct. 19, the rate of mail-in ballots returned in disaster counties lagged behind the rate of mail-in ballots returned in non-disaster counties by an average of 1.4 percentage points.

The largest percentage point difference of 2.7 was reported on Oct. 9, when voters in non-disaster counties had returned an average of 9.4% of their requested mail-in ballots and voters in disaster counties had returned an average of 6.7% of their requested mail-in ballots.

As of Oct. 23, voters in North Carolina had requested 408,573 mail-in ballots and had returned 95,014 mail-in ballots. Voters in disaster counties and non-disaster counties had each returned an average of 25% of their requested mail-in ballots. North Carolina civilian voters by mail returned 67% of requested ballots in 2020 and 68% in 2022.

Voters in two counties had returned fewer than 10% of requested ballots—Tyrell (0%) and Pender (7.2%). Neither county was a FEMA-designated disaster county. 

South Carolina

Early applicants for mail-in ballots in South Carolina began receiving their ballots about 30 days before the election. The application deadline was Oct. 25. Disaster counties reported higher rates of mail-in ballots returned than non-disaster counties between Oct. 9 and Oct. 15.

The largest percentage point difference of 3.3 was reported on Oct. 18, when voters in non-disaster counties had returned an average of 34% of their requested mail-in ballots and voters in disaster counties had returned an average of 30.7%.

As of Oct. 23, civilian voters in South Carolina had requested 123,073 mail-in ballots and returned 97,953 mail-in ballots. The county with the smallest percentage of requested mail-in ballots returned was Allendale, a disaster county, at 63%. South Carolina civilian voters by mail returned 94% of requested ballots in 2020 and 84% in 2022.