Strong Turnout at Polls Despite Post-Sandy Hardship

Hurricane Sandy did not stand in the way of voters at the polls Tuesday. Some described the act of voting as "sacrosanct" and said, come Hell or high water, their ballot would be cast.

"I only have little bit of gas, and if I didn't, I'd walk," said one man at the West Side School polling place on Laurel Hollow Road. "You have to do whatever you can to get to the voting booth," he said.

Voters hustled into the school wearing expressions of determination. Without power and heat for over a week following Superstorm Sandy, some came straight from the slow crawl of a gas line at 5:30 a.m. Casting a ballot seemed to be as much of an outlet for frustration as it was a hand in deciding America's future.

"I voted for Romney, not the (expletive) in the White House," said a woman. "All the problems that we have now are because of him...There's no reason why you couldn't go to other ports, bring the gas in and ship it in trucks...There's nobody here from FEMA, this whole community is a disaster. They told us another two weeks for power. My house is freezing, I just stood in a gas line for over two hours. Where the hell is the President? Doing zilcho, nothing."

As the woman walked to her car she continued to air her frustrations and met with static from an Obama supporter nearby. The two were representative of the apparent polarity between voters Patch spoke to Tuesday, almost a dead split between Republican party line voters and Democrat party line voters.

"People have an almost schizophrenic attitude toward government," said a male Democratic voter. "To say the government should stay out of our lives and then to implore the government to take care of our needs."

Presented with the same point, a female Republican voter said, "That's true, we don't want big government. But FEMA has the access to gas, water, food, which we've been taxed on all along. I don't believe in big government, no, but in this case, this is devastation."

No one seemed to be sitting on the fence. "I think that it would be a horrific event if Romney gets elected president," said a male voter. "Women's rights will disappear, the rich will get richer than they are now, and we'll see a degradation of the constitutional aspects of our existence."

The poll workers and election inspectors at the site rushed to manage the steady stream of voters. Equipment seemed to be working properly, but they were short two democratic election inspectors at the time. "We are supposed to have a bipartisan group and we don't," said a poll worker. "It's chaos in here right now."

Have you voted? How were the polls? Did Hurricane Sandy affect your vote in any way? Tell us in the comments below.

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