11/5/2012
By Ivan Pereira
Displaced voters who are worried about that they won’t be able to cast their ballot without making a huge trek Tuesday are in luck, but there’s a catch.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order that allows all New Yorkers to vote in polling sites that they weren’t assigned to. A voter will have to sign an affidavit at the location and fill out a ballot.
“Compared to what we had to deal with during the past week, this will be a walk in the park,” the governor said.
The late change, however, will be problematic for local races. Cuomo said that the affidavit voters won’t be able to cast their ballot for House and state Legislature races if they are outside their district.
“That is the downside of the system,” he said.
The governor said the numerous voting logistic issues brought on by Hurricane Sandy prompted the decision.
There are 60 poll sites in the city that either were too damaged or won’t have electricity to power the digital voting machines, according to the city’s Board of Elections. Those sites, most of which are in Queens and Brooklyn, were moved.
Aside from the poll sites being deemed inoperable, Cuomo said there were millions of Empire State constituents that were forced to flee far from their locations.
