Sandy-hit New York, New Jersey scramble to arrange alternate voting sites

"There is no reason not to vote," New Jersey's Secretary of State, Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno, who is responsible for overseeing the division of Elections, said.

The New Jersey Department of State directed county elections officials to permit registered voters displaced by Sandy to vote electronically.

"This has been an extraordinary storm that has created unthinkable destruction across our state and we know many people have questions about how and where to cast their vote in Tuesday's election.

"To help alleviate pressure on polling places, we encourage voters to either use electronic voting or the extended hours at county offices to cast their vote," Guadagno said.

In order to vote electronically, displaced voters would be able to submit a mail-in ballot application either by e-mail or fax to their county clerk.

Once an application is approved, the clerk would electronically send a ballot to the voter by either fax or e-mail and voters must return their electronic ballot by fax or email by the night of November 6.

Separate directives have been issued to enable displaced voters and first responders to vote by provisional ballot at a polling place in a county other than the voter's county of registration.

The deadline for county clerks to receive mail-in ballots has been extended to November 19.

As the region limps towards recovery from the devastation caused by Sandy, the already harrowed residents had to cope up with freezing temperatures.

With millions still without power, officials were scrambling to set up heating shelters and passing out blankets to residents.

According to data from power utility companies, more than 1.5 million customers were still without power with over 900,000 of those outages in New Jersey and about half a million in New York.

Bloomberg said as the recovery process continues, a big challenge would be to provide heat to residents as they brace for fall in temperatures over the next few days.

"One of the great fears we have is with cold weather coming, we have to make sure that people can stay warm. Among hardest hit are the Rockaways and Staten Island areas, a lot of places that don't have electricity but are going to experience the cold. That is the next big problem for us.

"It's cold outside, and it's going to remain cold for the next several days so it's critical that people keep warm," Bloomberg said, adding that shelters have been set up across the city for those who still do not have power and blankets are being distributed to the those in need.