Presidential Election, 6 November 2012

Hurricane Sandy, October–November 2012  

Hurricane Sandy first made landfall in the US near Atlantic City, New Jersey on 29 October 2012. It affected most of the East Coast having already impacted Jamaica, eastern Cuba and the Bahamas (Gibbens 2019). A day previously, President Obama issued emergency declarations for the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland and Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia (CBS 2012).  

Parts of New York City near lower Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island flooded, temporarily paralyzing the city's subway system. Over 8 million people lost power during the storm, and outages were seen for days or even weeks in some major cities. Thousands of people were made homeless, with more than 20,000 households still displaced a year after the storm hit. Almost 150 people were killed in the US from the effects of Hurricane Sandy (Gibbens 2019). Due to the severity of the damage caused, Obama issued major emergency declarations for New Jersey and New York, allowing these states to access a wide range of federal assistance programmes for individuals and public infrastructure (Jackson 2012).   

Impact on the electoral process 

The storm hit one week before the election, and the two presidential candidates stopped campaigning for a few days to help with relief efforts (James 2012). 16 states and the District of Columbia were affected by Hurricane Sandy, and more than 250 polling locations in New York and New Jersey were moved within days of the election, impacting 250,000 voters – 143,000 of these in New York City, where 59 polling places were moved. Millions of voters were stranded in place, without electricity or a way to travel to polling stations. Early voting was suspended on 29 October in numerous jurisdictions in the hurricane's path (James 2012). There was widespread voter confusion as officials scrambled to determine the best way to address voter disenfranchisement. Some top officials—such as New Jersey Governor Christie—asserted that voting was not their top priority as people were still missing and homeless following the wake of the storm (Green et al. 2013).  

At the same time, New Jersey expanded upon existing laws and procedures to make voting easier for victims of Sandy (Park, Harty and Asplund 2024). For example, the deadline for residents to request mail-in ballots was extended (by nearly a week), —as were early-voting hours. The requirement that poll workers live in the county where they work was lifted. In Bergen County alone, 152 polling places in 36 towns were relocated. (Green et al. 2013).    

When it appeared that those measures would not be enough, New Jersey announced that displaced residents could vote by email or fax as overseas voters, extended the deadline for submitting ballots via email and fax and opened up provisional voting across the state. However, allowing voters to cast ballots by email or fax led to several technical issues (Park, Harty and Asplund 2024). 

Voter turnout was at a record low of 67 per cent in New Jersey. New York City’s voter turnout for 2012 is estimated at 49 per cent, down from 59 per cent in 2008 (Green et al 2013).