By Anjali Athavaley, Pervaiz Shallwani, Sharon Adarlo, Alison Fox and Heather Haddon 
 
 UPDATED | Despite last-minute efforts by officials in New York and New Jersey to help storm victims vote, confusion, lack of electricity and long lines still plagued polling sites throughout the area Tuesday. 
 
 To prevent disenfranchising voters, shuttle buses were running in hard-hit areas, voting locations were combined and Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive ordering allowing storm victims to vote outside of their district Monday night. Still, problems arose as soon as some locations opened. 
 
 On the playground of Scholars’ Academy on Beach 104th St. in Rockaway Park, several voting locations from the western end of the Rockaway peninsula were consolidated into one tent-covered polling site. Problems started immediately, as poll workers arrived to find that generators, heaters and lights were nowhere to be found. 
 
 “It just got a little chaotic,” said pollworker Estel Lyons. “We had it planned the best we could and there were a few glitches.” 
 
 Zuma Press People gather to vote at a makeshift tent, which is used as a polling station in Rockway. 
 
 Marie Howley of Rockaway Park used a rental car to drive in from Rockville Centre on Long Island, where she has been staying with her daughter. Her only complaint was lack of sufficient light in the tents. “It’s dark in there,” she said. “You had to hold up the card to see. I think I filled in all the holes correctly.” 
 
 In hard-hit Hoboken, various snafus caused long waits for voters to cast ballots at a combined polling location for two districts on Grand Street. The doors of the Multi Service Center of Hoboken weren’t open at 6 a.m., poll workers struggled to find a key to open the operational voting machines and voters were told they might have to cast paper ballots, said Joe Maziarski, a 27-year-old Hoboken resident at the polling site. 
 
 “People weren’t really happy with that idea,” said Maziarski, a TV producer. 
 
 The machines were eventually opened but the tables lacked signs directing people to their appropriate polling district, and voters took it upon themselves to guide people, Maziarski said. “It was very disorganized. You couldn’t tell who was running the organization,” he said. 
 
 Sandy even threw some kinks in the voting process in parts of New York City where the lights stayed on throughout the storm. 
 
 In Park Slope, voters who usually cast their ballots at John Jay High School, now serving as an shelter for storm evacuees, were directed to PS 282, more than a half a mile away. Some residents had received fliers passed out on Monday by Assembyman James F. Brennan redirecting them to the new site. 
 
 Lines stretched outside the school and around the block. But displaced voters got a break and were directed to a separate entrance where lines were shorter. Those who already knew their election district were processed quickly, in about half an hour. 
 
 It was unclear if the shorter lines were because of lower turnout from residents redirected from their usual polling places. 
 
 At the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School in midtown Manhattan, polling workers said that around noon, they had run out of affidavit ballot envelopes needed for voters who weren’t registered at the polling site. 
 
 Jon Protas/The Wall Street Journal A double line of voters stretches around the block as people wait to vote on West End Ave at 95th street in Manhattan. 
 
 “Governor Cuomo sits up there in Albany and signs an executive order, but he’s not in the trenches,” said coordinator Fred Kelly. 
 
 Another Board of Elections worker said some voters had submitted ballots without envelopes, meaning their votes wouldn’t count. 
 
 Voters were instructed to try other polling places in midtown. “I figured there would be a long line, but I thought I’d be able to vote here,” said 22-year-old James Bedell, who lives in East Village but works as a bank analyst in midtown. He said of the confusion at the high school, “A lot of people don’t even know what they’re supposed to do.” 
 
 At some sites, voting was going smoothly. Voters have no wait time to use a polling booth at one Teterboro site that is accepting votes from displaced Moonachie residents. 
 
 Eleanor Madison, 77, displaced by the storm, said her town had shuttles to Teterboro so they could vote. 
 
 “We had calls from our police department,” she said about the voting change. “But not everybody is getting the calls. People have told me,” she said, guessing their numbers were not listed or registered. 
 
 “They are calling people but I say they should go around with a megaphone,” she said. 
 
 Dale Birnbaum, a small-business owner from South Brunswick who has been displaced by Sandy, struggled to figure out how to vote electronically. She couldn’t easily find information on the state’s website, and resorted to contacting friends on Facebook. She eventually contacted the Middlesex County clerk’s office for an application, but had yet to receive a response Tuesday. 
 
 “I want to vote so badly,” said Birnhaum, who is staying with her daughter in West New York and is going to try to vote provisionally in Hudson County. “I have local people I would love to vote for but I just want to vote for the president.” 
 
 Associated Press Poll worker Lisa Amico, right, helps voters by flashlight in a dark and unheated tent serving as a polling site in the Midland Beach section of Staten Island. 
 
 New Jersey residents who chose to vote electronically were facing confusion and uncertainty whether their votes would be counted. 
 
 Kate Supple, a 29-year-old Jersey City resident who was displaced by Sandy and staying in Manhattan, emailed her application to the Hudson County clerk Monday. Supple said she received a brief email acknowledgement of her application but has yet to receiver her ballot, and was worried that her vote wouldn’t be counted. 
 
 Poll worker Lisa Amico, right, helps voters by flashlight in a dark and unheated tent serving as a polling site in the Midland Beach section of Staten Island. 
 
 Several confused voters showed up Tuesday morning at PS 288 in Coney Island. A sign posted on the gate told them “school closed. No voting here.” A smaller sign directed people to 3001 west 1st street, 25 blocks away. 
 
 Martha Gonzalez, 23, showed up to vote but quickly realized she couldn’t do so here. “My Internet is down in my household,” said Gonzalez, who lost her job at a liquor store that was damaged in the storm. “I thought it was here.” 
 
 William Soto, 54, rode his bicycle to PS 288 with the hope of voting. When he saw the sign the retired mechanic got ready to turn right back around and go home. 
 
 “Obama, I’m sorry, I’m not going there,” he said about the new polling location. “It’s too much for me.” 
 
 Lines were long but the mood was subdued and civil at Bethel Baptist Church in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. The area was largely untouched by the storm. 
 
 Several people had heard of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s executive order allowing voters in nine counties affected by Sandy, including New York City, Westchester and Long Island, to vote at any site by affidavit ballot and wondered allowed if it might help them skip 45-minute waits to vote. But no one appeared to leave to try their luck. 
 
 – with Jennifer Smith 
 
 See more photos of New York and New Jersey residents voting in areas affected by superstorm Sandy. ||||| via @NewspaperVideo's Twitter 
 
 via @CBSMiami's Twitter 
 
 via @LizRoldanCBS4's Twitter 
 
 via @AdamBeasley's Twitter 
 
 via @doug_hanks Twitter 
 
 
 
 
 
 Update, 10:30 a.m. There's at least one neighborhood in Miami immune to hours-long voting waits: South Beach. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Perhaps most voters cast absentees or early ballots. More likely: most neighbors around here are either sleeping off a night at Mansion, baking in the sun completely oblivious to the fact that it's Election Day, or are German DJs who can't vote in the States. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Either way, this was the scene at Fienberg Fisher Elementary School: 
 
 
 
 
 
 photo by Tim Elfrink 
 
 Inside the doors, about 15 voters were filling out ballots in voting booths, on folding chairs or sitting along the walls. Total time to cast a ballot: About 15 minutes. 
 
 Life is good in SoBe. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Update 10:40 It's a world of difference in Edgewater, where New Times web editor Jose Duran found a three-hour line outside of Cameron House: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Update 12:09 New Times fellow Jon Tayler reports from Trinity Cathedral Hall at 14th St. and Biscayne Boulevard, where the line stretches out of the church and well into the parking lot. 
 
 
 
 
 
 No poll workers have given any official wait times, but Tayler estimates the full wait will easily take two hours. 
 
 
 
 
 
 photo by Jon Tayler 
 
 At 7 a.m. this morning, 829 polling sites opened in schools, storefronts and churches around Miami-Dade County. And despite the fact that almost half of likely Florida voters have already cast ballots, imposing lines quickly formed, snaking out front doors and down sidewalks -- and forcing some to abandon their election plans so they could get to work.Still, election officials say presidential voting is running as smoothly as possible so far. "We're going to see long lines because voters are enthusiastic," Christina White, deputy supervisor at Miami-Dade County Elections tells Riptide.Wait times have varied wildly around the county so far, based on online reports. Thes Kathleen McGregory reports on Twitter that some voters cast ballots in less than half an hour at City Hall in Coconut Grove.But photos from Liberty City to Miami Shores to Sunny Isles show long lines stretching out of the polling places.Thanks to an absurdly long ballot -- the handiwork of Florida's GOP-dominated Legislature, which tacked on 11 lengthy constitutional amendments -- voters can't just pop in, fill in a bubble for Mitt or Barry, and then move on.But White says early reports that some poll places were running short on ballots or on voting booths were incorrect, adding she's heard no reports so far of "major issues.""We've deployed the maximum equipment possible at every site," she says. "In many places, we have space limitations."Here are some scenes culled from Twitter:Have any election day horror stories? Share them in the comments or tweet us @MiamiNewTimes. We'll keep this post updated as voting continues today. ||||| The final minutes of turning absentee ballots at Miami-Dade election headquarters. Staffers scrambled to check in as many outstanding ballots as they could before the 7 pm deadline. 
 
 The Miami-Dade Elections Department is counting absentee ballots a day after the election. They hope to finish today. 
 
 Dont expect election results from Miami-Dade County anytime soon. 
 
 The countys beleaguered elections supervisor told reporters Wednesday night that her employees, still processing thousands of absentee ballots, wont finish until Thursday. 
 
 Supervisor Penelope Townsley acknowledged that mistakes had been made in the elections process, according to Miami Herald news partner WFOR-CBS4. She spoke after another day during which elections workers fed thousands of pages of ballots into scanning machines. 
 
 With the presidential race settled  but Florida still too close to call  Miami-Dades lack of final results have left a much-mocked blank spot on the long-decided electoral map. 
 
 Earlier Wednesday, the county had said 20,000 absentee ballots still needed to be counted. The office of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez issued a news release insisting that the unprecedented length of the ballot represents over 100,000 pages that need to be reviewed and verified, one by one. 
 
 This in no way is representative of any issues or delays, but a matter of unprecedented volume, the release said, noting that the countys canvassing board is continuing to examine suspect absentee ballots. 
 
 Overall, President Barack Obama had more than 61 percent of the vote in Miami-Dade, or 521,329 votes, while Mitt Romney had 317,382, or 37.6 percent, according to the election departments website. The county was plagued Tuesday by embarrassing delays and long lines preventing the state to be called for Obama or Romney. 
 
 Deputy Elections Supervisor Christina White insisted Wednesday morning that an unusually long ballot and high voter turnout, which was 64 percent, was to blame, not a lack of resources. 
 
 Its not that there were any problems or glitches, White told reporters. Its about volume and paper left to be processed. 
 
 Miami-Dade elections staffers worked overnight Tuesday and through Wednesday to count some 30,000 absentee ballots that had been dropped off or mailed to the Doral headquarters and county government center in downtown Miami at the last minute. The ballots had to be turned in by 7 p.m. Tuesday to be eligible for counting. 
 
 Teams of staffers counted 10,000 overnight, but still had another 20,000 to review Wednesday afternoon at the Doral headquarters. 
 
 The process is slow and tedious. To start, a dozen elections staffers must electronically compare images of voters signatures on absentee ballots with the signatures on the voters registration cards. Then the workers must determine whether the ballots have been properly filled out before counting them in scanning machines. 
 
 If staffers reject any ballots, they set them aside for the Miami-Dade canvassing board to make the final call. The board, sitting in an adjacent room, consists of the chair, County Judge Shelley Kravitz, County Judge Andrew Hague, and the county supervisor of elections, Penelope Townsley. 
 
 The elections office must also count all provisional ballots by 5 p.m. Thursday. White said she did not know the total number of provisional ballots. 
 
 Obama wont lose the lead in Miami-Dade, where his campaign had a massive grass-roots operation. But how the final batch of ballots affects the overall number in Florida remains to be seen  Obama leads by just over 46,000, according to the state election departments most recent numbers. 
 
 The race could still be close enough to trigger a recount in Florida, unless it is waived by Romney, who lost the overall election to the president. 
 
 On Wednesday afternoon, the total difference between the candidates hovered just above the .5 percentage point needed to trigger a recount as the final absentee and early voting numbers trickled in across the state. With such a razor-thin margin, no media outlets had called Florida for Obama or Romney. 
 
 Overall in Florida, at least 8,307,749 voters cast ballots for president, just under the number cast in 2008, when Obama won handily. 
 
 In Miami-Dade, so far, it appears the number of voters who cast ballots for president will be just shy of the 864,636 who did so four years ago. 
 
 Lines were so long in some polling places here that the last voter did not leave the West Kendall Regional Library until a few minutes after 1 a.m. 
 
 When polls officially closed at 7 p.m. hundreds of people were still waiting to cast ballots in precincts around South Florida, in an election that was marked by long lines and the occasional problem. Even after the networks called the race for President Obama, people in South Florida remained in line. 
 
 Voters complained that many stations lacked enough poll workers, scanning machines and privacy booths to address the crowds. Dozens of workers were diverted from closed polling places to others that faced daunting queues, and 150 extra optical scanners were distributed throughout the day. 
 
 This article will be updated as more information becomes available.
– Americans flocked to the polls this morning, forming long lines in many places around the country. USA Today counted 75 people in line at one DC polling place. Here are some of the stories filtering in nationally: Some problems have already cropped up in Virginia, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. One poll worker was caught telling voters they needed a registration card and picture ID, when the law only requires one of the two. Several problems with voting machines also cropped up, in one case forcing voters to be turned away for up to an hour. The lines were also long in Massachusetts, where Mitt Romney cast his ballot today, the Boston Globe reports. When asked who he voted for, Romney replied, "I think you know." Scott Brown, meanwhile, marveled at the lines at his polling place. "I've never seen it this crowded before," he said, "and I've been here for 25 years." Joe Biden caused a bit of a stir after casting his ballot in Delaware, when a reporter asked if this was the last time he would vote for himself. "Oh, I don't think so," he replied, which Fox News is taking as a hint that he might run for president again. In New York and New Jersey, confusion reigned, the Wall Street Journal reports. Power outages forced some polling places to make on-the-fly changes, like opening voting machines and switching to paper ballots. "It was very disorganized. You couldn't tell who was running the organization," says one Hoboken voter. The Miami New Times is reporting "imposing lines," even though half of likely Florida voters have already voted—adding that, because Florida's GOP has put 11 lengthy constitutional amendments on the ballot, voting can take a while.