EDITOR’S NOTE

Almost half the global population is heading to the polls this year, and the results in countries like India and France have already been seismic. In the United States, one of the most consequential presidential elections in modern history is hurtling toward a chaotic finish, and the fight for control of Congress and several state legislatures sits on a razor’s edge as well.

As Election Day nears, extreme weather is battering tens of millions of voters in the United States, baking fast-growing cities in Arizona and Nevada in extreme heat and flooding communities in Florida and North Carolina. Even as they upend lives, these climate disasters are also upending the political process — floods destroy polling places, wildfires displace voters for months, and long recovery delays sour voters on local politicians and the federal government. In communities around the country, from deep-red Louisiana to bright blue California, and in races from the city council to the U.S. Senate, climate disasters are exerting a little-noticed but transformative impact on political life. 

In our new series, State of Emergency, Grist is examining how extreme weather, being made more intense and frequent by climate change, is impacting people’s ability to vote and their engagement with politics.