Voters find ways to polls in storm-ravaged communities

RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Subfreezing temperatures and confusion greeted voters Tuesday in storm-ravaged New York and New Jersey, where officials moved more than 240 polling sites damaged by Hurricane Sandy to alternate locations.

"There’s definitely confusion," said Laura Ninger, who, with friend Margaret Rosario, said they had to fill out provisional ballots when they were among the first at Rutherford High School in New Jersey’s Bergen County. After a brief period of bafflement, they were directed to another area, where their paperwork was found.

As Americans chose a president, governments strained to allow citizens to participate despite the Oct. 29 storm that hobbled the region. Officials in New York City said almost 60 polling places have been moved, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was running election shuttles from stricken areas on Staten Island, Coney Island and the Rockaways. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Nov. 3 ordered that displaced voters and emergency responders may submit ballots via e-mail or fax until 8 p.m.

Phyllis Beard and her husband, Shelly, bounced from one Long Island voting location to another. They were at Oceanside High School, their third stop.

"Nobody has gas to get around, and they are sending us here and there," said Phyllis Beard, 74, a retired off-track betting employee. The Beards’ house was flooded and they lost two cars in the storm.

"We get in there and they don’t have the registration books, no voting material, no booths," said Phyllis Beard. "I’ve called the elections office but I can’t get through."

Gabrielle Hoyt’s home in Manahawkin, N.J., was flooded. She’s been staying at a hotel in Atlantic City, and was planning to make the 40-mile drive to vote for President Barack Obama, a vote that she says is all the more important because many displaced or overwhelmed residents of the Garden State may be unable to.

"Everyone’s car that was there is totaled," said Hoyt, 44. "To get home is difficult, let alone to do any work. Certainly, to get to vote is also very difficult."

Temperatures dipped below 30 degrees Fahrenheit overnight, adding to the Election Day difficulties. One week after the Atlantic superstorm hit the Northeast and knocked out power to 8 million customers, 1 million were without electricity in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, according to utility websites.

At the powerless Prospect Presbyterian Church in Maplewood, N.J., poll workers labored by hurricane lights and temporary halogens at 5:45 a.m. to get voting machines functioning. One woman arrived with an armload of blankets to ward off the cold.

Two shore-lashed New Jersey jurisdictions, Ocean and Monmouth counties, moved more than 180 polling sites, many in beachfront communities that suffered severe storm damage.

In Ocean County, a bus equipped with 12 voting machines went to eight shelters to allow as many as 15,000 displaced residents to cast early votes Monday, said George L. Gilmore, the county’s election board chairman.

The disruption, at least in the presidential race, will be more personal than political. New York and New Jersey are not considered swing states and President Barack Obama, according to public opinion polls, is expected to win both in the contest with Republican Mitt Romney.

In New Jersey, emailed ballots may swing local elections that sometimes are decided by a handful of votes, said Matt Blaze, a professor of computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. If the losers challenge the integrity of the e-mail voting, that may result in contested elections, he said.

"You never want to make such a significant change so close to the election, or on the eve of the election," J. Alex Halderman, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan, said in a telephone interview. "It’s a recipe for more chaos, unfortunately."

A request for an absentee ballot submitted through the Essex County clerk’s website Monday morning hadn’t been answered by 11 a.m. Tuesday. A call to the office of County Clerk Christopher Durkin wasn’t answered.

Jones reported from Chicago, Jamrisko from Rutherford, N.J., and Moritz from Oceanside, N.Y. Contributors: Eric Engleman in Washington and William Selway in Atlantic City, N.J.