Hurricane Sandy left a path of destruction along the Jersey Shore and in Lower Manhattan, but as areas struggle to clean up and rebuild, they face another imminent problem: Election Day. Officials are scrambling to make sure voters in affected areas can cast ballots in a safe and secure way.
In New Jersey, some potential problems threats to voting could be flooding, power outages and downed wires.
Michael Kennedy, the county registrar for Cape May County, joined the Daily Rundown to share his assessment of the voting situation in his district, which has two possible polling places underwater in Ocean City.
Kennedy first assured NBC’s Chuck Todd that Cape May county fared pretty well compared to its neighbors in the aftermath of the storm. He also explained that the county would make telephone calls and send out advertisements to those municipalities affected and place signs in those places.
“We will consolidate those polling places into other polling places within the municipality,” Kennedy added.
When asked about whether counting the votes would be impacted, Kennedy said he didn't believe the storm would have too much of an impact given the precautions taken by officials.
“From what I’m being told in the other counties and they have a lot worse to deal with then we do, they are going to make arrangements to have the machines in other polling places which won't affect the count on election night,” he said.
The district Kennedy represents uses paper ballots that are read through machines in the Board of Elections.
Kennedy also stressed that most Board of Election areas are intact and remains confident his county won’t encounter too many problems next Tuesday.