As Hurricane Sandy recovery creeps along, officials worry about election day voting
Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
A man in in Union City, New Jersey
looks across at the New York skyline on Nov. 2, 2012. Much of the lower
half of Manhattan is still without power after Hurricane Sandy, as well
as 32% of customers in New Jersey.
The New York City subway system is now operating along 80% of its
network, and more of the network will come back on line through the
weekend, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday.
Addressing concerns about fuel shortages, particularly gasoline, that have hit the New York area since superstorm Sandy struck earlier this week, Cuomo also said 8 million gallons of fuel had been delivered since the New York Harbor reopened. Another 28 million gallons would be delivered this weekend, he said.
Cuomo said most of the flood waters that had swamped the site of the World Trade Center memorial and museum had now been pumped out.
Meanwhile, officials in New York, New Jersey and other states hit hard by Sandy are anxiously waiting to see whether polling sites may need to be moved for next Tuesday’s presidential election because of power outages.
“We’re open for business Nov. 6. That will be Election Day,” said John Conklin, spokesman for the New York state Board of Elections. “We’re doing everything we can to make sure that everyone who goes to the polls will have a poll site to go to.”
That is the big question – where the voters will go to cast their
ballots, particularly in parts of New York City and New Jersey that
remain crippled from Sandy, which ravaged parts of the northeastern
United States on Monday night.
Much of the lower half of Manhattan is still without power. Nearby areas, including the New York City borough of Staten Island, the New Jersey shore and the city of Hoboken, New Jersey, are struggling to recover from flooding and storm-related damage.
Power was still out to some 2.5 million customers early on Saturday, down from 3.5 million on Friday, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity Delivery & Energy Reliability said.
The state with the largest number of outages by far is still New Jersey with 32% of customers without power, it said it a report.
Some 9% of customers in New York still do not have power, followed by 7% in Connecticut.
Conklin said the local election boards in the areas hit hardest by the storm are assessing all their polling sites to decide which ones will be up and running by Tuesday’s election.
Power companies have been asked to prioritize getting electricity back to election sites after first restoring power to crucial places like hospitals.
Election officials in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are evaluating polling sites to see if the buildings are safe and if they are accessible to the public as well as to the election boards that must deliver voting machines.
Voting in New York and Connecticut could take place without electricity if necessary. They both use “optical scan” ballots that are filled out by hand and then scanned through a machine to get counted, election officials said.
The scanning machines can operate on battery power. If that runs out, the ballots could be placed in a locked box and at the end of the voting day could be transported to a site with electricity and run through the scanner to be counted, officials said.
Inaccessible polling sites may need to be consolidated or moved to
other nearby locations. In some areas, like in the New York City borough
of Queens where fire destroyed many buildings, a tent may need to be
set up as a temporary voting location, Conklin said.
Conklin said polling sites may not be open in every voting precinct but will be open in as many as possible. “If you have to move a site, you don’t want to move it too far because you don’t want to disenfranchise people,” Conklin said.
William Biamonte, the Democratic commissioner for the Nassau County Board of Elections on New York’s Long Island, said he is worried about equipment, poll workers and votes.
“I think it’s going to affect voter turnout no matter,” Biamonte said. “Peoples’ homes were destroyed.”
Of the county’s 375 polling sites, less than half are ready to go, Biamonte said, and others are either without power, operating on generators or have not been in contact.
He said that while voting can be done without electricity, it could delay the counting and could also be dangerous for poll workers, who tend to be elderly, and voters if they are coming to cast a ballot in darkness.
Biamonte said that while the state has promised generators to provide electricity, the county does not have the staff to properly install them.
New York state extended its absentee ballot application deadline until Friday and extended the deadline for absentee ballots to be received and counted by six days, until Nov. 19.
Connecticut extended voter registration by two days until Thursday.
Secretary of State Denise Merrill said up to 95 polling locations are
without power, but said the utility companies are trying to restore
electricity as soon as possible.
“We will be ready to vote next Tuesday no matter what, and the preferences would be not to move or consolidate any polling locations unless absolutely necessary,” Merrill said in a statement.
In New Jersey, where entire oceanside neighborhoods were flooded, authorities are focused more on public safety than elections.
“I’d like to have the polling places powered up for next Tuesday. I’m not yet to the point where I know whether we’re going to be able to do that or we’re not going to be able to do that,” New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said in a briefing on Wednesday, noting that his top priority is restoring power and clean water to residents.
Christie said his administration would be coming up with contingency plans for polling sites that may not have power, but vowed to be ready for Election Day.
Joseph Parisi , the mayor of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, said some voting locations there and in Bergen County may have to be relocated due to lack of power and flooding.
In Pennsylvania, where hundreds of thousands of people remained
without power, utility companies hope to get the electricity back for
Election Day.
“I don’t want to be overly optimistic but I do think we’ll be close to having all of our polling places up and running by Election Day,” said Frank Custer, a spokesman of Montgomery County, near Philadelphia.
President Barack Obama told emergency response officials on Saturday to cut through government “red tape” and work without delay to help areas ravaged by Sandy to return to normal as quickly as possible.
“There’s nothing more important than getting this right,” the president said at a briefing with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and state and local governments.
With the presidential election four days away, the destructive storm has shifted some of the focus away from Obama’s tight race with Republican Mitt Romney. While the natural disaster has afforded the president an opportunity to rise above the fray of campaigning, it has also raised the stakes for him to show his administration can respond quickly and effectively in a crisis.
Obama spoke by video conference with the governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and municipal officials to discuss efforts to help the East Coast states reeling from Monday’s storm that left 110 dead, millions without power, and whole neighborhoods destroyed by flooding.
“We still have a long way to go to make sure that the people of New Jersey, Connecticut, New York and some of the surrounding areas get their basic needs taken care of,” the president told reporters.
Obama said people working on rescue and relief efforts are making a “120%” effort, but urged those providing disaster relief to work without delay.
“We don’t have patience for bureaucracy. We don’t have patience for red tape,” the president said.
Relief efforts are focusing on restoring power and pumping water out of flooded areas, Obama said.
“It’s critical for us to get power on as quickly as possible,” he said. Military equipment was being brought in from around the country to help with those efforts, the president said.,
Relief work is also concentrated on meeting the needs of people affected by the storm, removing debris, and positioning National Guard to help getting transportation systems back to normal, he added.
Patience had worn thin on Friday as millions remained without power and many drivers waited in long lines for gasoline.
The government moved to ease the fuel crunch by tapping strategic reserves and buying millions of gallons of gasoline and diesel to be trucked to storm-damaged areas.
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said Saturday that the U.S. Department of Defense would be trucking 12 million gallons of fuel to the area in the next few days to help alleviate the fuel crunch.
Addressing concerns about fuel shortages, particularly gasoline, that have hit the New York area since superstorm Sandy struck earlier this week, Cuomo also said 8 million gallons of fuel had been delivered since the New York Harbor reopened. Another 28 million gallons would be delivered this weekend, he said.
Cuomo said most of the flood waters that had swamped the site of the World Trade Center memorial and museum had now been pumped out.
Meanwhile, officials in New York, New Jersey and other states hit hard by Sandy are anxiously waiting to see whether polling sites may need to be moved for next Tuesday’s presidential election because of power outages.
“We’re open for business Nov. 6. That will be Election Day,” said John Conklin, spokesman for the New York state Board of Elections. “We’re doing everything we can to make sure that everyone who goes to the polls will have a poll site to go to.”
Seth Wenig/The Associated PressThe
half of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge attached to Brooklyn is lit while
the half attached to Staten Island is dark in New York, Nov. 2, 2012.
Much of the lower half of Manhattan is still without power. Nearby areas, including the New York City borough of Staten Island, the New Jersey shore and the city of Hoboken, New Jersey, are struggling to recover from flooding and storm-related damage.
Power was still out to some 2.5 million customers early on Saturday, down from 3.5 million on Friday, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity Delivery & Energy Reliability said.
The state with the largest number of outages by far is still New Jersey with 32% of customers without power, it said it a report.
Some 9% of customers in New York still do not have power, followed by 7% in Connecticut.
Conklin said the local election boards in the areas hit hardest by the storm are assessing all their polling sites to decide which ones will be up and running by Tuesday’s election.
Power companies have been asked to prioritize getting electricity back to election sites after first restoring power to crucial places like hospitals.
Election officials in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are evaluating polling sites to see if the buildings are safe and if they are accessible to the public as well as to the election boards that must deliver voting machines.
Voting in New York and Connecticut could take place without electricity if necessary. They both use “optical scan” ballots that are filled out by hand and then scanned through a machine to get counted, election officials said.
The scanning machines can operate on battery power. If that runs out, the ballots could be placed in a locked box and at the end of the voting day could be transported to a site with electricity and run through the scanner to be counted, officials said.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters U.S.
President Barack Obama at a briefing with cabinet secretaries about
operations in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, at FEMA headquarters in
Washington, Nov. 3, 2012.
Conklin said polling sites may not be open in every voting precinct but will be open in as many as possible. “If you have to move a site, you don’t want to move it too far because you don’t want to disenfranchise people,” Conklin said.
William Biamonte, the Democratic commissioner for the Nassau County Board of Elections on New York’s Long Island, said he is worried about equipment, poll workers and votes.
“I think it’s going to affect voter turnout no matter,” Biamonte said. “Peoples’ homes were destroyed.”
Of the county’s 375 polling sites, less than half are ready to go, Biamonte said, and others are either without power, operating on generators or have not been in contact.
He said that while voting can be done without electricity, it could delay the counting and could also be dangerous for poll workers, who tend to be elderly, and voters if they are coming to cast a ballot in darkness.
Biamonte said that while the state has promised generators to provide electricity, the county does not have the staff to properly install them.
New York state extended its absentee ballot application deadline until Friday and extended the deadline for absentee ballots to be received and counted by six days, until Nov. 19.
Chip East/Reuters Commuters
at the Times Square subway station on Nov. 2, 2012. The New York City
subway system is now operating in 80% of its network.
“We will be ready to vote next Tuesday no matter what, and the preferences would be not to move or consolidate any polling locations unless absolutely necessary,” Merrill said in a statement.
In New Jersey, where entire oceanside neighborhoods were flooded, authorities are focused more on public safety than elections.
“I’d like to have the polling places powered up for next Tuesday. I’m not yet to the point where I know whether we’re going to be able to do that or we’re not going to be able to do that,” New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said in a briefing on Wednesday, noting that his top priority is restoring power and clean water to residents.
Christie said his administration would be coming up with contingency plans for polling sites that may not have power, but vowed to be ready for Election Day.
Joseph Parisi , the mayor of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, said some voting locations there and in Bergen County may have to be relocated due to lack of power and flooding.
Brendan McDermid/Reuters A New York City Police officer watches over a Hess fuelling station in Brooklyn, New York, Nov. 2, 2012.
“I don’t want to be overly optimistic but I do think we’ll be close to having all of our polling places up and running by Election Day,” said Frank Custer, a spokesman of Montgomery County, near Philadelphia.
President Barack Obama told emergency response officials on Saturday to cut through government “red tape” and work without delay to help areas ravaged by Sandy to return to normal as quickly as possible.
“There’s nothing more important than getting this right,” the president said at a briefing with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and state and local governments.
With the presidential election four days away, the destructive storm has shifted some of the focus away from Obama’s tight race with Republican Mitt Romney. While the natural disaster has afforded the president an opportunity to rise above the fray of campaigning, it has also raised the stakes for him to show his administration can respond quickly and effectively in a crisis.
Obama spoke by video conference with the governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and municipal officials to discuss efforts to help the East Coast states reeling from Monday’s storm that left 110 dead, millions without power, and whole neighborhoods destroyed by flooding.
“We still have a long way to go to make sure that the people of New Jersey, Connecticut, New York and some of the surrounding areas get their basic needs taken care of,” the president told reporters.
Obama said people working on rescue and relief efforts are making a “120%” effort, but urged those providing disaster relief to work without delay.
“We don’t have patience for bureaucracy. We don’t have patience for red tape,” the president said.
Relief efforts are focusing on restoring power and pumping water out of flooded areas, Obama said.
“It’s critical for us to get power on as quickly as possible,” he said. Military equipment was being brought in from around the country to help with those efforts, the president said.,
Relief work is also concentrated on meeting the needs of people affected by the storm, removing debris, and positioning National Guard to help getting transportation systems back to normal, he added.
Patience had worn thin on Friday as millions remained without power and many drivers waited in long lines for gasoline.
The government moved to ease the fuel crunch by tapping strategic reserves and buying millions of gallons of gasoline and diesel to be trucked to storm-damaged areas.
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said Saturday that the U.S. Department of Defense would be trucking 12 million gallons of fuel to the area in the next few days to help alleviate the fuel crunch.
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