Sandy's wind and rain are long-over, but the superstorm's wake may have a major impact on the next big story—Election Day.
With over one-hundred-thousand customers still in the dark throughout Westchester, a string of polling places in the county remain without power. Schools, churches and municipal buildings where residents usually cast their electronic ballots are without juice—and may be so for some time.
"Over 150 of Westchester's 380 polling places are without power," Tajian Jones, a spokeswoman with the county's Board of Elections, told Patch Friday at 1:30 p.m. "Some are slowly coming back."
Jones said county officials are currently hashing out contingency plans, but nothing has been finalized.
"We may merge some polling locations together," Jones said, noting one spot without power may be absorbed by a nearby voting place with electricity.
Westchester has been communicating with the State Board of Elections as well, and had hoped to secure generators—but high demand means the portable power may not materialize.
"Because of Sandy, the need is all over the place," Jones said. The board also considered purchasing generators themselves, but just about all retailers are sold out, Jones added.
Polls are open Tuesday, Nov. 6 from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The New York State Board of Elections has extended its absentee ballot deadline, allowing away-from-home voters to send in their choices by Nov. 2. The deadline in usually Oct. 30.
ConEd, who has workers in Westchester's streets scrambling to return power to customers, said no special preference is being given to polling stations.
"Our strategy is to focus on equipment that will return power to the most people," said Sarah Banda, a spokeswoman for the power company.
And while that strategy may help a handful of polling posts get up and running by Tuesday, it's coincidence, not special attention.
Some residents are hoping to avoid the polls entirely—in Briarcliff Manor, officials told Patch people in the area are seeking absentee ballots.
While nearby Putnam County is anticipating a relatively normal Election Day, Rockland County is seeing issues similar to Westchester's. The Rockland Board of Elections said 68 of the county's 80 polling places were powerless as of Thursday afternoon.
"Right now we are in contact with the state, requesting emergency generators," said Lou Babcock, one of the county's election commissioners. Babcock is also seeking lights, power cords and gasoline to run the generators.
If voting locations do not have power to run the ballot scanners, election officials will store the ballot sheets in a locked container, and feed them through the machines at a later date or different location, Babcock said.
"There could be a two to three day delay," he added.
Babcock says shuttering a polling site would be a last-ditch plan.
"We are not looking at closing any of the polling sites," he said. "If we do have to, there will be signage on our website, and we will communicate through radio and TV—but most people without electricity don't have radio or TV, so they wont know until they're at polling sites."
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With regard to ID--I think NY State law says that only first time voters who registered by mail need to show ID. I'm not sure why any change needs to be made. Poll watchers check voters against their lists no matter the form the voting takes--machine or paper ballots. Remember the problem right now, with the storm, is making sure everyone can still vote. Many lost acceptable forms of ID in the storm, so we would effectively be disenfranchising folks if we made stricter ID requirements in order to use absentee ballots due to the storm--doesn't seem fair to me two days before the election in the middle of a crisis. I'd personally like to polling places open early (today and Monday) as well as Tuesday, with flexibility allowed for people with polls that have no power to go to the next closest precinct, like they appear to be doing in the city, rather than risk disenfranchising anyone--especially people who have been exercising their right to vote for years--due to lack of power, though election officials would know best how practical or, indeed, potentially unworkable such a solution would, in fact, be.
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