There are still tens of thousands of people without power and running water in North Carolina because after Hurricane Helene. Team Trump unloaded a van full of donations of essential items for people hit by the storm in Western North Carolina. “We’ve seen the devastation. It’s been heartbreaking, obviously, to see what’s gone on here,” Lara Trump, co-chair of Republican National Committee said. Trump was a part of the group of women who packed donations at the Hearts and Hands food pantry warehouse. Volunteers from the group will drive the donations to western North Carolina, where many people have been without essentials for nearly three weeks. The Republican party says it is working to make sure there are no barriers to the ballot as storm clean up continues. “We’ll go house to house, we’ll go community to community if we need to, with buses, with vans, with whatever it is that we have to be able to transport people to either turn in their absentee ballot, get out and actually physically vote in an early voting or election day location,” Lara Trump said. The Trump-Vance campaign called on North Carolina leaders to expand voter access in counties impacted by Helene. The republican party is involved in several lawsuits across the battleground states that some advocates say could limit access to voting. After the storm, the party sung a different tune in western North Carolina. “They are certainly looking at [that] part of our state knowing that it is a Republican stronghold, overwhelmingly votes Republican. I would assume that fits into their calculus,” Bob Phillips from Common Cause NC said. “I will give our state lawmakers all the credit they deserve for passing good election laws that address these needs, just as they did largely four years ago when we were all facing the pandemic.” Voters can turn in absentee ballots in any county across the state. Ballots can be requested until October 29th online. Election officials say despite damage, 76 out of 80 early voting sites are open in impacted counties. Early voting starts Thursday, October 17th in North Carolina. “What we’re seeing is that the vast majority [of early voting sites] are going to be open and available to the voters in some shape or form,” Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of NC Board of Elections said. “It might require a generator. It might require a porta potty, but we are getting those sites open.”