Lingering impacts from a double-whammy of weather systems last week and a record-setting hurricane season is leading to voting being impacted in several states on Election Day.
More than 2.9 million people were without power in the wake of Zeta from Louisiana through Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas in the immediate aftermath of the storm. That number has dropped to over 80,000 customers along the Gulf Coast as of Tuesday morning, according to power outage tracking website poweroutage.us.
A number of voting locations in the region were affected, with elections officials spending Monday night tending to lingering problems around the region.
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Louisiana is still the hardest-hit from Zeta, with over 38,000 outages still reported statewide, but utility crews were working swiftly to restore power.
Damage in New Orleans after Hurricane Zeta roared through. Tens of thousands remain without power after the storm. (Chris Granger/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP/NOAA/GOES-East)
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, had asked utility companies to prioritize restoration to voting locations even before Zeta struck. In the New Orleans area and other southeastern parishes, more than a dozen voting locations will be running on generator power Tuesday because outages caused by Zeta last week have not been fixed.
“No polling location will be without power on Election Day,” Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, the state's chief elections officer, said in a statement.
A large tree limb, which snapped as Hurricane Zeta moved through New Orleans, rests on power lines in the city's Carrollton neighborhood on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Kevin McGill)
Ardoin and New Orleans' Democratic Mayor LaToya Cantrell went back-and-forth on Sunday over generators for polling sites. Cantrell had criticized the Republican-led secretary of state’s office Sunday for “failing to fulfill its duty” in providing the generators needed for polling sites, risking disenfranchisement of voters.
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Ardoin then accused Cantrell of “trying to score cheap political points” with her criticism.
Power poles lean or are broken due to Hurricane Zeta damage Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020, in Grand Isle, La., as part of Gov. John Bel Edwards flyover of stricken areas in the southeastern part of the state. (Bill Feig/The Advocate via AP)
Ardoin's office said that every polling location will have adequate power, with generators for voting sites provided largely by utility Entergy, but also some by the state as well.
In the southwestern part of Louisiana, voters will be casting ballots in different locations due to ongoing damage from Hurricane Laura, which struck in late August.
The storm wrecked traditional polling sites in southwestern Calcasieu and Cameron parishes, where Ardoin’s office told the Associated Press that 95 polling precincts have shifted because of the destruction of the Category 4 storm.
In rural Cameron Parish, most voters will be casting ballots at either a local fire station or a neighborhood market. Calcasieu Parish has created several consolidated voting sites, with most voters in Lake Charles casting their ballots at two mega-polling locations, the Burton Coliseum entertainment arena or the Lake Charles Civic Center.
Elections officials have cautioned that the megasites may require longer waits for voters than usual.
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“Due to the fact that we’ve moved 70 percent of our locations - that’s 85 polling locations. The number one thing voters need to know is where they go," Calcasieu Paris Clerk of Court Lynn Jones told KPLC-TV.
Cameron Parish Clerk of Court Susan Racca said Monday that early-voting turnouts have been large this year, which was a good sign for Tuesday.
“It should be fairly light because almost everyone has voted," she told the television station.
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In Georgia, where Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has already reported record-breaking early in-person voting, power outages from Zeta left a number of polling places dark last week.
A line of voters forms during early voting at the Dunwoody Library after Hurricane Zeta knocked out power in the surrounding areas on Oct. 29, 2020, in Dunwoody, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Downed trees and other hazards made it difficult for workers to reach polling places that were still active, affecting locations in at least 16 counties.
Two or three polling places remained without power Monday, Gabriel Sterling, statewide voting system implementation manager, told the AP.
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Officials in Cobb County said they were able to reopen voting sites with the assistance of cellphone hotspots.
Poll workers walk through dark voting booths during early voting at the Dunwoody Library after Hurricane Zeta knocked out power in the surrounding areas on Oct. 29, in Dunwoody, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
In Douglas County, officials extended hours on Friday to account for lingering power outages, FOX5 reported.
In Alabama, multiple voting places remained without power Monday, but generators will be provided to any that still lack service on Election Day, according to Secretary of State John Merrill.
Merrill said all 1,980 polling locations will have power on Tuesday, either through regular service or by a generator.
Utility workers repair the power lines at Giani Road in rural Pass Christian, Miss., where thousands of people are without power on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2020, following Hurricane Zeta. (Calvin Ishee/The Gazebo Gazette via AP))
Officials in some of the hardest-hit counties spent the final day before the election trying to determine just how many places might lack electricity or have storm damage.
In Talladega County, which has 26 polling sites, chief probate clerk Lawana Patterson told the Associated Press emergency management officials had told her “everything is in working condition.”
"I’m not saying everything is perfect, but I’m working on it,” she said.
Handwritten warning signs are taped to garbage cans on a street blocked by a tree downed after the passage of Hurricane Zeta, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020, in Decatur, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta. (AP Photo/Ron Harris)
Alabama Power said as of Monday night there were still 23,000 outages statewide. The company has restored power to 95% of its customers.
"Our storm team is working safely and quickly to restore service to all affected customers," the utility tweeted Tuesday. "Thank you for your patience and please stay safe."
In neighboring Mississippi, seven counties still had power outages in homes or businesses. Electricity has been restored to all polling places in four of those counties — Hancock, Harrison, Jackson and Stone.
An ice storm in Oklahoma last week left more than 123,000 without power as of Tuesday morning but didn't appear to have too great an impact on early voting. Early voting in the state kicked off Thursday and ran until 2 p.m. Saturday.
Oklahoma County, the state’s largest, was operating on backup power from a diesel-powered generator. State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax told the Associated Press voting would continue even if polling locations lose power.
Trees at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum were damaged from the ice storm that caused widespread problems across Oklahoma on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020. (Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum)
“The beauty of paper ballots is that there can be voting regardless of whether the power is on or not,” Ziriax said. “It might slow things down a bit, but it will still happen.”
The state election board has called the turnout there "unbelievable."
The line for early voting at a polling place in Oklahoma County wraps around Edmond Church of Christ in Edmond, Okla., on Oct. 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
“Early voting numbers have been outstanding," Misha Mohr of the Oklahoma State Election Board told KOCO-TV. "What we're seeing is just incredible enthusiasm all the way around for this election, and we anticipate it will be the same way on Election Day; voters here in Oklahoma tend to primarily vote on Election Day."
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After a crazy week of weather, including the ice storm and Hurricane Zeta, the forecast has calmed down a lot.
It's a cold few days across the Northeast but really warm in the Plains and Southwest. Overall, the precipitation is gone for most of the country.
Election Day on Tuesday will have some morning flurries in New England and some rain in coastal Oregon and Washington. Aside from that, the whole country will be dry.
The national forecast for Election Day, Nov. 3, 2020. (Fox News)
Temperature-wise, it'll be cold and breezy in New England but unseasonably warm in the center of the country and the West.
There should be no weather-related issues with voting this year.
Fox News' Rick Reichmuth and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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