GEORGIA, USA — Georgia's Secretary of State and election officials gave an update Monday on the upcoming election on Thursday following the aftermath of Helene.
Some counties in the Peach State are still recovering after Hurricane Helene ripped through the state, causing downed trees, power outages, and even claiming the lives of dozens.
On Monday, several election officials said they "were going to be ready" to handle the upcoming election. Early voting in Georgia starts on Oct. 15.
Georgia Elections Director Blake Evans said that at least three counties—Lowndes, Richmond, and Columbia counties — will have to change one of their polling locations due to power outages or damage from the storm.
"They have to assess the structure and the power of the voting machines. It's taking a little time," said Evans.
Although the storm impacted some polling locations, the Secretary of State's office said that most official county election offices are safe.
The voter registration deadline of Monday, October 7, is provided for by Georgia law, which sets it 30 days before an election -- Tuesday, November 5 this year.
At least 40 advocacy groups wrote Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans, urging them to extend the registration deadline in the affected counties by at least a week beyond Monday's deadline.
However, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger did not mention an extension at this time, reiterating that the state is ready for voters.
"So far, we have seen no need to do that, which is a good thing. Secondarily, we have no legal authority to extend the registration deadline or the absentee request deadline," said Gabe Sterling.
Absentee ballots started going out today and will continue until Friday, but Helene impacted some United States Postal Service locations and routes.
Sterling suggested that some voters drop off their absentee ballots instead of sending them back to the USPS location. He also recommended some voters go to a polling location and vote early.
He added that at least one county, Bacon County, cannot deliver any absentee ballots at all.
Although Sterling said that the storm has impacted absentee voting, he said they do not expect any delays in early voting.
Sterling also addressed recent election rule changes made by the state's election board.
One of the controversial rule changes that passed requires local precincts to hand count ballot totals.
"Well, I hope that they will listen to the election officials who actually run elections and take their counsel, which they have failed to do so far," he said. "The main thing that we are focused on is the reason you don't change these rules this late and we don't have a court of competent jurisdiction that ruled on these just yet."
He added the first upcoming hearing is on Oct. 16 on some of the rules.
"We can't expend limited resources on something that might not even happen right now. We don't try to deal with things that don't actually exist yet," Sterling added. "We understand that many people are trying to do things to secure the election and increase people's faith in the outcome of the election. At the same time, they are undermining other people's faith in the election."
Sterling added that making changes to ballots this late is impossible to train for, and human error was bound to happen.
Watch the full news conference below.