

Obama Campaign strategist David Axelrod denies claims of Mitt Romney's momentum while GOP adviser Rich Beeson says several blue states could be in play. WSJ reporters assess the final days of the campaign, the new jobs figures and Hurricane Sandy.

Elections officials across the Northeast scrambled Tuesday to figure out how to proceed with voting next week given widespread flooding, damaged roads and power outages. Michael Crittenden has details on The News Hub. Photo: Getty Images.

With Election Day one week away, New York officials said they might have to change some polling sites. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy postponed a voter-registration deadline to Thursday from Tuesday. Maryland officials were considering the use of paper ballots if some of the state's electronic voting machines are unusable.

But many state leaders said it was tough to make decisions about polling places and hours until the extent of the damage becomes clearer.

"My concern is people won't be able to get to polling places if roads are blocked," said Peggy Reeves, Connecticut's director of elections. "The election has to go on, and we have to figure out a way to do it."

John Conklin, a spokesman for the New York State Board of Elections, said local boards were still figuring out which poll sites might lack power, be inaccessible or structurally unsound. Once that is done, Mr. Conklin said, alternate polling stations could be set up if necessary.

One possible adjustment is to consolidate polling places. That, in turn, could lead to longer lines, given the high turnout expected.

States also may lengthen voting hours if circumstances warrant, but they may not extend voting beyond Election Day unless Congress allows it, which seems unlikely.

Several states have faced election disputes in recent years, but they have had to do with human controversies rather than natural disasters. Florida was famously embroiled in a recount in 2000, and other states, including Ohio, have faced debates over how long to keep open polling places due to long lines.

The situation is something of a novelty, and officials were struggling Tuesday with the prospect that a hard-fought, razor-thin presidential election would face the final twist of being affected by flooding and outages. Still, no one was suggesting the election outcome would be affected.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it intends to reimburse municipalities if they need to obtain generators or relocate polling places.

Absentee ballots and early voting already have been curtailed in some areas. In Delaware, the New Castle office of the state Commissioner of Elections announced that absentee voting would not be available Tuesday due to the storm.

In Connecticut, the state said that if their town halls were closed due to the storm, local officials should try to get into the buildings, remove absentee ballots and dispense them elsewhere.

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Maryland officials extended the state's early-voting period an extra day, to Friday, after it was canceled Monday and Tuesday due to the storm, said Ross Goldstein, deputy administrator for the Maryland State Board of Elections. State officials on Tuesday afternoon also extended until Wednesday the deadline for requesting absentee ballots.

Maryland uses touch-screen voting machines, but Mr. Goldstein said printed ballots are ready if necessary in areas affected by the storm. Their use could cause a delay in counting votes because they cannot be read by optical scanners.

"People might be frustrated by the timing of the results, but everyone would have a chance to vote," Mr. Goldstein said.

But many state officials Tuesday said they still were figuring out the damage to polling sites. "The individual counties make the call," said Ron Ruman, spokesman for Pennsylvania's Department of State.

Pennsylvania officials recommend that counties have enough paper ballots for 20% to 25% of expected voters, Mr. Ruman said, who added that many of the touch-screen voting machines could run on battery power for at least part of Election Day.

That could result in local officials alternating use of battery-powered touch-screen machines with paper ballots. "We're hopeful we can run a normal election," Mr. Ruman said.

Utility companies know the polling locations and dispatch repair crews to them after restoring power to top-priority locations such as hospitals, Mr. Ruman said.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whose state was hit hard by Sandy, said at a news conference Tuesday that Election Day isn't a concern of his right now. He said he would ask Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno for an assessment closer to next Tuesday.

"I don't give a damn about Election Day," Mr. Christie said. "It doesn't matter a lick to me at the moment. I've got much bigger fish to fry than that, and so do the people of the state of New Jersey."

—Heather Haddon
contributed to this article.

Write to Naftali Bendavid at naftali.bendavid@wsj.com