POINT PLEASANT, N.J. – Election Day turnout was heavy Tuesday in storm-ravaged areas in New York and New Jersey, a welcome change from crisis to catharsis for many who saw exercising their civic duty as a sign of normalcy amid lingering devastation.

Lines were long in many voting districts in both states with power still sporadic and many residents casting their ballots at makeshift polls.

Retired customer service agent Joan Andrews, who fled her trailer in Moonachie, N.J., by boat a week ago after Hurricane Sandy hit, said, “I always have to vote, especially now.”

Authorities in New York and New Jersey used shuttle buses to take some displaced residents to their polling sites and fielded phone calls and emails from voters confused about where they were supposed to go.

New York City Elections Commissioner J.C. Polanco said lines were long even in areas of the city most devastated by Sandy’s wind and water. He said voters in the Rockaways area of Queens were casting ballots at a school where nine polling locations had been merged into one. Other voters in the Rockaways and one precinct in the Bronx were voting in tents powered by emergency generators.

The efforts put a premium on creativity. At a public school in Staten Island’s Midland Beach, flares were set up at an entrance to provide light, and voting machines were retrieved from inside the school and moved into tents where voters braved 29-degree temperatures as they lined up.

At another Staten Island school, there were no official signs referring them to a new polling place. Those who arrived on foot were taken to the correct location by a shuttle bus, officials said. A hand-written sign eventually was placed at the school’s driveway.

 

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