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Hurricane Helene Creates a Political Polling Blackout in Crucial States

It will be nearly impossible to accurately measure how voters in states like North Carolina and Georgia are feeling about politics in the storm’s tragic aftermath.

North Carolina Flooding
Torrential rain from Hurricane Helene flooded areas in western North Carolina. Kathy Kmonicek/AP

In the busiest month of the election cycle for pollsters, several in the business say they won’t be trusting the numbers coming out of crucial swing states like North Carolina or Georgia amid the devastation from Hurricane Helene.

More than 100 people have died, about 2 million people still don’t have power and many have lost their homes. If any polls are currently underway, experts fear the results won’t accurately represent the current political climate.

“If anyone is doing phone polling now, I would have to question [the results],” said David McLennan, director of the Meredith College poll. “If I had been in the field while the hurricane was going on or immediately after, the results would be shaped by what’s happening.”