Voting, the Candidates, and Climate Disasters
Long-term investment in voting infrastructure enables voters in NC to cast ballots. Disasters could slowly influence bi-partisan agreement for climate action. U.S. immigration policy could impede or catalyze climate migration. Presidents hold direct power over capital allocation post-disaster.
Curated Insights - November 5
Investment in voting infrastructure enables voters in Western North Carolina to cast ballots
📰 North Carolina won’t let a hurricane hamper the 2024 election (Brennan Center For Justice, 10/30)
- The North Carolina voting system is proving resilient due to prior implementation of policies such as no-excuse absentee voting, early voting, and tracking of ballot status.
- Of the 80 early voting sites expected to open in disaster-impacted areas, only 4 in Buncombe county (home of Asheville) were unable to open.
- $5 million in state and federal emergency funding is being utilized to support election communications and facilitate voting.
Disasters could slowly influence bi-partisan agreement for climate action
📰 Climate Disasters Only Slightly Shift the Political Needle (UNDARK, 10/29)
- No single climate disaster will be a silver bullet that shifts attitudes, beliefs, and behavior on climate change.
- However, in the long term, cumulative stories, that connect the dots about the various dimensions of a changing climate and impact on society, can converge to move the needle, shifting public opinion and even voting behavior.
- Climate disaster response is one area of convergence between conservative and liberal ideologies. For example, direct experience with disasters has shown potential to close the partisan gap towards voting for positive climate policies.
U.S. immigration policy could impede or catalyze climate migration
📰 Uncertainty over presidential election worries climate-impacted immigrants (City & State, 10/24)
- Immigration is a hot button topic for the 2024 election, but there is very little coverage about the intersection of immigration with climate change.
- Immigrants are providing first hand accounts that extreme heat/weather and associated health impacts are a top driver for movement.
- Since migration will increasingly be a dimension of adaptation that is considered, advocates are calling for climate change to become a factor for asylum and immigration.
Presidents hold direct power over capital allocation post-disaster
📰 Climate Stakes of the Harris-Trump Election (Grist, 10/23)
- Trump has indicated curtailing FEMA funds and suggested that funding to states might be dependent on political support, such as withholding wildfire support from California unless state officials allocate more irrigation water to Central Valley farmers.
- Harris has provided no explicit indication of how she would support disaster-response or climate-resiliency, but did bolster FEMA funds post Helene and Milton.
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