WASHINGTON - The Committee on House Administration held a Subcommittee on Elections Hearing titled, "Maintaining Election Operations in the Face of Natural Disasters."

Witnesses:

• The Honorable Cord Byrd - Florida Secretary of State

• Mr. Stacy "Four" Eggers, IV - North Carolina State Board of Elections Secretary

• Ms. Karen Brinson Bell - Former North Carolina State Board of Elections Executive Director

In case you missed it, here are the top takeaways:

1. What lessons can other states learn from Florida and North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Helene?

Chair Laurel Lee (FL-15): What other key lessons can other states learn from Florida, where election season so routinely coincides with hurricanes?

The Honorable Cord Byrd: Once again, pre-positioning resources, table topping or game planning, the scenarios, what's going to happen and then really, you know, having that communication with the individual supervisors so that we want to use a scalpel to pinpoint exactly what resources they need and provide. We want to make as few changes to our election system as possible. So we really want to take a targeted approach and meet the needs of that individual county. So in one storm, we may have a flooding event in one county, but it could be power outages in another county. So there's going to be different needs. So it's not a one size all approach.

Chair Laurel Lee (FL-15): And Mr. Eggers, what Secretary Byrd just said reminds me of one of your comments in your opening statement about finding the right remedies and targeting those remedies to fit the needs that develop in a situation. Would you describe for us, please, the type of logistical problems that Hurricane Helene caused for your election procedures, particularly in western North Carolina, and how you all adapted to meet those challenges?

Mr. Stacy "Four" Eggers, IV: Thank you, Chair Lee. The logistics were first and foremost communication because we had no communication between the various counties and the state, to address those items. So that was handled in a number of different ways, between the Starlinks being delivered, but also just by word of mouth, by folks going from one county to another. Our first emergency resolution, I had to inform a county board of elections that we had canceled several of their meetings on their behalf, and they said, good, we couldn't get anyone here to do that. So it's a process of building communication first and then building the infrastructure back so that you can get what's needed both through local emergency management, through state emergency management and on up the chain. So logistics are the key for building back those precincts and those locations that are critical to our success.  

2. Working in a bipartisan fashion to get an election back on track after a natural disaster

Dr. Greg Murphy (NC-03): Mr. Eggers, let me just ask a couple questions of you. How did the State's board, which is a bipartisan board, how did that come into play to try actually effectuating availability of voting sites and how things get done and did politics play a role?

Mr. Stacy "Four" Eggers, IV: Yes, sir. I'm very proud of the work my colleagues and I were able to do related to tailoring what was needed for emergency relief to a bipartisan nature so that we could target those items that could address necessary changes, such as relocating polling places if the site or building had been destroyed or washed away, while not taking steps that would try and give partizan advantage to either side. It was a good a show of the American spirit of coming together in the wake of a disaster, not in the name of politics, but in the name of how can we restore consistency to the process? Because consistency in elections builds confidence in elections, and that's what the voters are looking for.

3. How do election supervisors continue their responsibilities when an evacuation is ordered?

Rep. Mary Miller (IL-15): When entire counties or localities must be evacuated, how do local election supervisors safeguard election infrastructure and supplies that are necessary to run polling locations?

The Honorable Cord Byrd: Well, they're the real heroes. I mean, they're the ones who they stay in their counties. I was on the phone with a supervisor of elections who had three feet of water in her home, but she was still doing her job. She was on the phone with us. And so once she made sure that all of her people were safe, her mission, she was elected to do that job, and they're staying. They're not evacuating, so they're staying in their county. They're going out as soon as it's safe to go to the polling sites to see which are still operable, which are down, and what we need to do to then get resources to get those sites back up and running.