http://2cccd5dfe1965e26adf6-26c50ce30a6867b5a67335a93e186605.r53.cf1.rackcdn.com/Poll Power Wrap_Emily Farah_SOC.mp3
Hurricane Sandy’s toll on Pennsylvania should not be among excuses for failing to vote on Tuesday.
Pennsylvania Department of State spokesman, Ron Ruman, says “with confidence” that all Pennsylvania polling places will have electricity by tomorrow’s election. Paper ballots were being considered as an alternative.
“As of 9:00 o’clock this morning we had only 8 polling places in Pennsylvania that still did not have power,” Ruman said. “Of those 8, 5 had generators already on site [and] the other 3 were being assessed to see whether they would need generators or they might be back online today.”
More than 200 of the 9,300 polling places in Pennsylvania did not have power Friday night, but Ruman says utility workers have been working over the weekend to get electricity in the voting locations.
Ruman said it took cooperation from the Public Utility Commission, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, various county emergency management agencies and the county election offices to report and restore the loss of power in the state’s polling places.
Ruman said no polling places are physically inaccessible, but warns that alternate routes may be necessary to get to those locations.
“Now there certainly were some roads that were closed…and most of them have reopened,” Ruman said. “There could be an instance or two where people perhaps have to detour a little bit to get there, can’t really say about that, but all the polling places are usable and generally accessible."
