Deep Dive: Ballot Test

>>> officials insist the recovery effort is foremost on the line and not the election being held in five days. that said, people cast ballots safely next tuesday under way. how this could affect places in new york and owe figures are now scrambling to accommodate four million voters in new york city alone. the board of election said one option being weighed is having tent near the polling sites where the voters would have normally voted with generators and our workers will be able to serve the voters. that's one option. and for supervisors for northern and central jersey is simply a lack of power. in southern new jersey , along the shore, flooding is also a big problem. and along the beach in ocean county , many election officials can't be reached. these are the people that have to run the election. they can't find them, folks. if you can get to the county clerk office, vote by mail. more than 100 polling places are in the dark but he's very optimistic to find alternate voting sites or power will get back on in time. to make it easier to cast ballots, absentee voting was extended through saturday. i want to get a better sense of the challenges that these folks are facing in some of these areas. we're going to go to cape may county in new jersey. the area includes cape may as well as ocean city and wildwood. joining me now by phone, thank you for coming on this morning. tell me your assessment this morning. how many polling places will you not be able to open on election day if you were to guess today?

>> right now, chuck, in cape may county , we have two possible polling places under water in the city of ocean city . we fair pretty well in cape may county unlike our neighbors north of us.

>> what is your plan to deal with a polling place that you will have to move? how do you tell people about it since obviously there's no power in a lot of these places? it's not clear where people are getting information. how will -- what's the best way to inform voters?

>> we will consolidate those polling places into other poll places. we're going to do the math telephone calls and advertisements and signage in the municipalities for which they would be affected.

>> and from what you've heard around the state, is this going to be a case -- will counting the votes be impacted? for instance, tell me what kind of ballots you use in your county and is that going to -- is a lack of power going to slow down the count?

>> from what i'm being told, they are going to make arrangements to have the machines in other polling places which won't affect the town on election night . i'm being told that most of the states are in tact.

>> all right. michael kennedy , cape may county . it does sound like the hardest hit part is in new jersey. everybody is going to try to figure out how to make this election happen on tuesday. good luck and good luck with the cleanup in getting this election forward.