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Storm took a toll on polls, but island got out vote

Photos by Q. Sakamaki

With public schools and many of the usual poll sites off limits on Staten Island after the storm, the borough’s voters cast their ballots in outdoor tents that were hastily set up for the occasion. As it turned out, President Obama won the island in a squeaker, with just more than 50 percent of the vote, only the fourth Democrat in a presidential election to do so since 1944. Al Gore won Staten Island in 2000, Bill Clinton took it in 1996, Lyndon Johnson won there in 1964 and F.D.R. captured it in 1944.