“Yesterday’s turnout is a clear sign that voters are energized about this election, that they trust the elections process, and that a hurricane will not stop North Carolinians from exercising their right to vote,” Brinson Bell said in a press release Friday.

Early voting begins in the battleground state of North Carolina on Thursday, as the western part of the state still feels the impacts of Hurricane Helene’s flooding three weeks later. More than 400 voting locations in the state’s 100 counties were expected to open Thursday for the early voting period,

Early in-person voting has started in the presidential battleground state of North Carolina. That includes in the mountains, where some potential voters still lack power and clean running water after Hurricane Helene’s epic flooding last month.