By Stephanie Kelly HENDERSONVILLE, North Carolina (Reuters) -Polls opened for early voting on Thursday in North Carolina - a critical battleground in the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election - just weeks after Hurricane Helene left some residents still without power,

State officials are tracking impassable roads and contacting voters who requested absentee ballots to try to get them delivered.

Early in-person voting begins Thursday in North Carolina. Election officials are set to open 419 early voting sites across the state. All 100 counties will have early voting options available, despite the destruction Hurricane Helene brought to the western portion of the state.