The worst of Sandy will hit

[sunnystarr]

in states where there's NO early voting. If the forecasted 10 million people will be without power which could easily extend to include Election Day, will these voters be disenfranchised?

Are there election laws in place that either address a state of emergency scenario on election day or ignore it and lock the state in to only the actual election day results?

These are basically safe Dem states. What if the safer Red areas of these states have their power back on election day and the safe Blue areas of these states don't?

[Raven]

1. No early voting here in NH and you can register

on Election Day.

[amuse bouche]

7. That should be the law everywhere

Having to register a month before elections is ridiculous and leaves a lot of people out

[dipsydoodle]

2. Couldn't happen in the UK

other than maybe some loss of light which would be easy to cope with. We're strictly soft pencil and paper for voting.

[Cobalt Violet]

3. Here in MA the Warren/brown could decide who controls the senate.

My hope is all have their power up in plenty of time. Not sure what happens we don't.

[graham4anything]

4. actually, it would probably be the reverse

the big urban cities are normally the safest, and ones where people can get places and do so no matter what

it's the rural areas that are hit the hardest, need cars, etc.

so in theory, PA could benefit Obama, VA could benefit Obama, and NY/NJ/CT it should be a wash(no pun intended).

I think voting continues even if it is by candlelight.
power is not mandatory to vote.


and against mitt-if the power is out, advantage the president

People in NYC/Boston/Philly/etc. are never stopped from doing anything. Life went on 9/11 for instance in the rest of the city locally.

[Inuca]

6. Power ismandatory to vote if

you vote on a machine that needs power.

[OldDem2012]

11. The contingency is using paper ballots. nt.

[FlaGranny]

10. Flooded subways are likely

in NYC - 8 million riders a day.

[graham4anything]

12. NYers have been famous for getting to work during subway strikes.

and most in NYC have their voting booths in walking distance of their homes, so though they may travel to work, to vote it's walking distance (and the storm will end Thursday even if there is a week of blackouts, life will continue famously in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens and the Bronx

[graham4anything]

5. also, the workers are union, and NY and Mass and MD gov's are democrats

[NutmegYankee]

9. Connecticut is Democratic too. nt

[annabanana]

8. As an election official on Long Island,

I know that our machines have a capacity to store marked paper ballots securely during power outages for future, bipartisan, supervised scanning.

[sunnystarr]

13. Thanks for your responses - that clarifies things a bit (nt)