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Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney talks to supporters calling for donations during a storm relief campaign event to help people who suffered from hurricane Sandy, in Kettering, Ohio, on Oct. 30, 2012.

KETTERING, OH — Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney collected donated supplies for hurricane victims on the East Coast on Tuesday, while urging supporters to give money to the Red Cross at a hastily arranged "relief event" in Ohio.

"Thank you for your help and your generosity," Romney told supporters, as he stood on a table surrounded by donated goods, at the location of a planned campaign rally this morning. "If you have a little extra, if you have more canned goods, bring them along to our victory centers that are open.  But also if you can write a check to American Red Cross that's welcome as well.  We're looking for all the help we can get for all the families in need."

Romney had been scheduled to hold a full-fledged campaign rally in this same building until late yesterday, when the campaign said it was scrapping Romney's political calendar as Hurricane Sandy approached the East Coast. Monday night, the campaign announced this morning's event was back on, but the focus would be storm relief — with Romney making no formal remarks, and no political agenda attached.

Attendees were asked by the campaign to bring donations of non-perishable goods, which are to be trucked to a Red Cross office in Sewell, NJ — or to give to the red cross directly.

Romney's remarks were indeed without a political focus, with no direct mention of the election now just one week away, or of President Barack Obama or any specific campaign issue. After speaking and packing boxes, Romney and Ohio Sen. Rob Portman helped load the donated supplies into a truck for shipment, ignoring questions about whether he planned to tour storm damaged areas, and on his views of the future of FEMA.

Despite effort to the contrary, no political event can be entirely apolitical in late October of an election year, and some trappings of a rally remained here. Romney's long biographical video played once, well before Romney arrived at the venue, and outside the arena vendors sold buttons and hats to attendees as they left. 

Mandy Hess, an administrative assistant at a medical office in Kettering who attended the event with her teenage son, said she wasn't bothered by the hint of politics mixed in with the relief effort.

"It's letting you know who he is as a person and what his roots are, and that people and family are what's important to him so I think that ties into the relief effort," Hess said. 

The GOP nominee himself kept his focus on the storm victims, and tried to strike an uplifting tone, telling supporters that their effort, however small in the grand scheme of things, would matter.

"I know that one of the things I've learned in life is you make the difference you can," Romney said.  "And you can't always solve all the problems yourself, but you can make the difference in the life of one or two people as a result of one or two people making an effort." 

The campaign resumes in full force Wednesday, with Romney planning three rallies in Florida, while his vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan hits the trail in Wisconsin. 

President Barack Obama canceled his campaign trips to Ohio on Wednesday as the rest of the 2012 presidential campaign prepared to largely resume its usual stride in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

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President Barack Obama makes a statement in the White House briefing room following a briefing on Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 29, 2012.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney — who was holding an event on Tuesday in Ohio ostensibly intended to collect supplies and donations for storm relief — appears set to head to Florida on Wednesday before heading to hurricane-stricken Virginia on Thursday.

Earlier Tuesday, the White House announced that the president will no longer make his planned campaign trip to Ohio, and instead remain in Washington, D.C., to monitor fallout from Sandy.

With just a week remaining until Election Day and precious few hours remaining for Obama and Romney to sway swing voters in a series of battleground states, both candidates had to weigh politicking with sensitivity to the East Coast victims of Hurricane Sandy.

The president faced additional official responsibilities in assisting to restore power to millions of Americans without electricity, and helping states cope with damage to infrastructure and beyond.

Obama won plaudits from a top supporter of Romney's — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — for his handling of the storm's aftermath.

But, speaking on Fox News, the pugnacious New Jersey governor also angrily dismissed efforts to interpret his comments through a political lens.

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

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In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

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“I have a job to do," he said. "If you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics, than you don’t know me."

Each presidential contender turned to surrogates on Tuesday to carry their message.

Related: Romney set to return to hurricane-stricken Va. on Thursday

Former President Bill Clinton was set to stump for Obama in Minnesota and Colorado, while Ann Romney was scheduled to hold a rally in Iowa following several hurricane relief events earlier Tuesday in Iowa and Wisconsin.

Wednesday's campaign schedule resembled a more traditional agenda for candidates just six days before an election. Vice President Joe Biden was set to make stops in Florida, and Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan was scheduled to campaign in his native Wisconsin.

The Romney campaign's official mobile phone application advised events for the former Massachusetts governor in Florida.

At this point, Obama's next publicly advised campaign events were set for Thursday, when the president was scheduled to make a three-state campaign swing with stops in Las Vegas, Boulder, Colo., and Springfield, Ohio.

Also on Thursday, according to the Republican Party of Virginia, Romney will make the first trip of any candidate to that battleground since Sandy struck.

Romney hasn't visited the Old Dominion state since Oct. 17, and canceled a planned visit this past Sunday for fear of diverting resources from preparedness operations.

 The hurricane's aftermath continued, though, to inject broader uncertainty into the race for president and scores of downballot campaigns, as candidates' schedules were re-arranged on the fly.

Power outages and canceled campaign events also complicated pollsters' efforts to gauge public opinion in states affected by the hurricane.

Of additional concern to both campaigns might be impact of inclement weather and hurricane fallout on early voting, a process used by both Romney and Obama to bank votes ahead of Nov. 6 itself.

Biden suggested on the "Enrique Santos Radio Show" on Tuesday morning that the hurricane may depress early voting.

"It may, it's just hard to tell now," he said of the storm's impact. "We've gotten the early vote out pretty well so far."

Could the vast disruption caused by Sandy prompt a delay in the Nov. 6 presidential election?  Voting may be extensively disrupted in some of the swing states, including Virginia and Ohio.

The answer is, yes, it could undoubtedly be delayed.  But it almost certainly won't be.

The Constitution gives Congress the authority to establish the day for presidential elections, and since 1845, a federal law has set the date as "the Tuesday after the first Monday in November." Congress could change the date, just as it could change any federal statute. But it would have to act quickly.

And of course, it's the states, not the federal government, that run elections in America.  Many states in areas not affected by Sandy's wrath would be likely to oppose a delay and its attendant costs. They could choose to go ahead with their elections for all but president and have a separate election for president later.  But such a move would undoubtedly suppress the turnout. 

Past disasters, including weather emergencies, have forced postponement of state and local elections.  New York state suspended its primary election in 2001 -- on September 11th, the day of the suicide hijack attacks. But few states have a regular procedure for doing it.  Florida, with its long experience in dealing with hurricanes, is one of the few with specific procedures in place, allowing the governor to suspend or delay elections.

Slideshow: Sandy slams into East Coast

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Superstorm Sandy made landfall Monday evening on a destructive and deadly path across the Northeast.

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John Fortier, a nationally respected expert on presidential elections, points out additional problems, writing on a blog sponsored by the Moritz School of Law at Ohio State University. 

"If voting were disrupted and postponed in one state," Fortier says, "then we will likely know the results in all the other states before voting can resume in the affected state. If the affected state or states are determinative of the electoral college outcome, the pressure and focus on that one state would be enormous."

Among other questions, he says, are what to do with votes already cast.

Finally, consider the fact that never before the U.S. history has a presidential election been postponed or canceled, not even during the Civil War.

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

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In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

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MSNBC political analyst and former RNC Chairman Michael Steele, former Democratic senator from Arkansas Blanche Lincoln and USA Today's Susan Page talk about where President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are Tuesday and how Hurricane Sandy could impact the last week before the election.

The deadly hurricane that is sweeping across the Eastern seaboard interrupted early voting in some states Monday, even as Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney urged voters in Ohio to cast their ballots early.

Speaking at a campaign event in Ohio, Romney noted the significance of early voting: “I know that early voting has begun. Get out there and vote, I see a voter right there. Get out and vote, we want ya early. We need you. It sends a very strong message ...”

He explained that “all the media follows how much early voting is going on, and they look at your zip code and where you live and make an estimate of whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, and they decide whether we’re ahead or we’re falling behind.”

But Hurricane Sandy’s path of disruption and destruction may turn some would-be early voters into old-fashioned Election Day voters if it keeps them from driving or walking to their poll station over the next few days.

Early voting has been under way in Ohio since Oct. 2. Much of the state was under high wind warnings from the National Weather Service for Monday and Tuesday.

Matt McClellan, a spokesman for Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, said Monday that the county boards of elections prepare contingency plans for emergency situations that are reviewed by Husted’s office.

“The Secretary of State's office is also receiving daily updates from the Ohio Emergency Management Agency on the weather. We are confident that at this point in time local boards are prepared,” McClellan said.

In West Virginia – which, unlike its neighbor Ohio, hasn’t been a hotly contested state in the presidential race – snow was falling Monday as forecasters  predicted total snowfall of up to three feet in some parts of the state.

West Virginia has an early in-person voting option and early voting has been going on since last Wednesday. Secretary of State Natalie Tennant said in a statement Monday that early voting was continuing, but she cautioned, “If you don’t have to go out, stay inside and make sure you are ready for this storm. Be mindful of high water, downed power lines, and icy conditions. Please, do not go out and risk your safety to try and make it to an early voting location. There are several more days of early voting and even Election Day, which is next Tuesday.”

Tennant said her office is working with county clerks to develop contingency plans for early voting locations in the event that electricity is cut off.

In Maryland, with its coastline directly in the path of Hurricane Sandy, Gov. Martin O’Malley issued an executive order Sunday canceling early voting for Monday and Tuesday and extending the early voting period through Friday.

In Virginia, a state that Romney and President Barack Obama have fought fiercely to win, absentee voting is permitted (by mail or in person) in cases where a person will be absent from the state on business on Election Day or in cases of disability or illness.

Due to the hurricane, local election offices were closed Monday in several of the state’s largest cities and counties including Loudon County, Arlington County, and Fairfax County.

In-person absentee voting in Virginia ends at the close of business on Saturday.

Other states in the track of Hurricane Sandy that do not allow for early in-person voting are: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York, and Connecticut. They do permit absentee ballots to be cast by mail, although in some cases a reason is required.

In Pennsylvania, where Vice President Joe Biden will be campaigning Friday and where a pro-Romney Super PAC will be spending $2 million on TV ads in the final days of the campaign, there is no early in-person voting, but voters can mail in an absentee ballot.

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

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In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

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The deadline in Pennsylvania for applying to a voter’s county Board of Elections for an absentee ballot is Tuesday. Completed absentee ballots must be received by 5 p.m. on Friday, but since this is a presidential election year, the state will count absentee ballots received by the close of the polls on Election Day for the offices of president and vice president.

The hurricane’s impact on voters was reaching as far away as Minnesota, where Secretary of State Mark Ritchie told people in his state who were being deployed to the East Coast to assist with the emergency response to Hurricane Sandy to vote absentee-in-person before they leave or to request an absentee ballot.

“We want to make sure every eligible Minnesota voter can vote. My office is contacting emergency-response organizations, utility companies and relevant government agencies to ensure that those who have already departed and others who are being mobilized can vote,” Ritchie said in a statement.

AVON LAKE, OH — Hurricane Sandy's impact spread from the East Coast to Ohio this morning, where Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's campaign announced it was scrapping planned events across the Midwest, while the candidate himself called upon supporters to donate to relief agencies and send prayers to those in the storm's path. 

"On the Eastern Coast of our nation, a lot of people are enduring some very difficult times. Our hearts and our prayers go to them as we think about how tough it's going to be there," Romney told an audience of some 2,500 supporters in a high school gym this morning. "I'd like to ask those of you that are here today to think about  making a contribution to the Red Cross or another relief agency, to be of help if you can in any way  you can imagine to help those who are in harm's way." 

Recommended: Sandy gives unpredictable twist to 2012 election

Romney, whose campaign has suspended fundraising appeals in the afflicted states, also asked his supporters to donate to relief organizations, either through the campaign's infrastructure, or on their own.

"I know our victory centers are making collections of items and cash that we can send along to the Red Cross," Romney said, echoing an email sent by his campaign this morning. "But whether you come to our victory center or just do it with your email, your internet account, do your very best to help."

"We're counting on Ohio," Romney continued. "I know the people of the Atlantic Coast are counting on Ohio and the rest of our states, but I also think the people of the entire nation are counting on Ohio because my guess is, my guess is if Ohio votes me in as President, I'll be the next president of the United States."

Romney's remarks on the storm came at the end of his stump speech here this morning, and are indicative of the delicate balance the GOP challenger must maintain between keeping up a campaign predicated in no small part on criticizing the record of President Barack Obama, and not looking opportunistic or unconcerned about the impact of a potentially devastating weather event affecting a large portion of the country.

Absent from Romney's remarks this morning was his now traditional attack on Obama for running a "small" campaign, focusing instead primarily on his own day-one agenda and five-point plan, along with a promise to work across the aisle should he be elected.

"I am going to reach across the aisle and work with Democrats. I’m going to find common ground. We have to find a way to work with people in the opposition party," Romney said. "Democrats love America. Republicans love America. We can come together."

As Romney spoke, his campaign announced it was canceling a planned event tonight in Wisconsin, and tomorrow's scheduled events in Ohio and Iowa. The campaign also cancelled events in Florida for Romney's running mate Paul Ryan, and said the campaign schedule remains in flux. 

Slideshow: On the campaign trail

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In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

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Charles Dharapak / AP

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney waves to supporters as he takes the stage at a campaign stop at Avon Lake High School in Avon Lake, Ohio, Oct. 29, 2012.

Updated 4pm ET Many Americans have come to expect that when natural disaster strikes their hometown or state, the president will declare it a disaster area and federal dollars will soon arrive to help them rebuild their home or business.

In 2005, President George W. Bush was pummeled with criticism after telling Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, “Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job,” even though some residents and local officials in the Gulf Coast states thought the federal effort was inadequate.

Given the politics of natural disasters, Hurricane Sandy might become an issue in the waning days of the 2012 campaign.

Like many other Americans on Monday, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney took note of the hurricane that is lashing the Eastern Seaboard, telling a crowd in Avon Lake, Ohio, “A lot of people are going to be facing some real tough times as a result of Sandy's fury. And so if you have the capacity to make a donation to the American Red Cross, you can go online and do that. If there are other ways that you can help, please take advantage of them because there will be a lot of people that are going to be looking for help and the people in Ohio have big hearts, so we're expecting you to follow through and help out.”

If Romney becomes president, will he attempt to cut funding for FEMA which sends money to states hit by natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy?

And if FEMA funding were reduced, would that mean reduced federal help for places hit by hurricanes, tornadoes , and earthquakes? Or would Congress find ways to re-route the money, given the political popularity of sending checks to people whose houses or businesses have been flooded?

Romney campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said, "Gov. Romney believes that states should be in charge of emergency management in responding to storms and other natural disasters in their jurisdictions. As the first responders, states are in the best position to aid affected individuals and communities, and to direct resources and assistance to where they are needed most. This includes help from the federal government and FEMA.”

In the fiscal year which just ended, the federal government spent $10 billion on disaster relief and the Congressional Budget Office projects that it will spend roughly that amount every year for the next ten years. By comparison, the CBO forecasts that defense spending will be about $635 billion a year for the next few years and Social Security spending will amount to about $810 billion a year.

Romney hasn’t specifically explained by what amount he’d try to cut FEMA funding, but he has set ambitious goals for reducing federal outlays other than on defense and entitlement programs.

Romney has said he’d try to cut non-security discretionary spending by 5 percent in 2013 and bring total federal spending to below 20 percent of gross domestic product by the end of his first term.

He has said on his campaign Website that he wants to see Congress enact the budget plan which the House passed last March but which the Senate rejected. That budget blueprint called for greater efficiency in disaster relief spending.

But Romney has also put distance between himself and that House GOP budget plan, drafted by his running mate, House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, by saying, "His plan is not the plan I’ll put forward, I have my own plan …”

Slideshow: Sandy sets sights on East Coast

Lucas Jackson / Reuters

After strong winds and heavy rain washed out bridges and damaged homes in multiple countries, the hurricane looks toward the northeastern U.S.

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Asked about federal disaster relief spending on places such as Joplin, Mo., which was struck by a tornado last year, Romney said in a June 2011 debate on CNN, “Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that's the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that's even better.”

He added, “Instead of thinking in the federal budget, ‘what we should cut?’ -- We should ask ourselves the opposite question: ‘What should we keep?’ We should take all of what we're doing at the federal level and say, what are the things we're doing that we don't have to do? And those things we've got to stop doing, because we're borrowing $1.6 trillion more this year than we're taking in.”

Debate moderator John King then asked, “Including disaster relief, though?”

Romney’s reply: “We cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids. It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we'll all be dead and gone before it's paid off.”

The Ryan budget blueprint said it seeks to “ensure that those state and local governments most in need are receiving the assistance required.”

It calls for “improving efficiencies in state and local programs” when it comes to disaster recovery and “improved cost-estimating and efforts to help states and localities use existing resources to help communities recover from disasters expeditiously and cost-effectively.”

The GOP plan argues that the Obama administration has been too liberal in its use of taxpayer funds by labeling too many events as disasters worthy of federal money.

“The current administration has issued a total of 2,213 disaster declarations— 66 percent of all FEMA disaster declarations since 1953 in the span of three years alone,” said the Budget Committee report. That report also cites a study by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office which found that from 2002 to 2011, “presidents have declared 35 percent more disasters than they did during the preceding decade.”

The Budget Committee argued that “When disaster-relief decisions are not made judiciously, limited resources are diverted away from communities that are truly in need.”

The GOP plan said Congress ought to “take a closer look at” steps such as reducing federal spending “by updating disaster declaration eligibility indicators, like per capita thresholds and other major disaster metrics, by (for example) adjusting for inflation.”

Congress must try to “increase transparency in the way that disaster declaration decisions are made,” the report said, which seems to imply that some disaster declarations are not made for legitimate reasons but rather because a powerful member of Congress or governor is able to persuade the president to send federal money.

Updated at 9:16 p.m. ET: An impending hurricane injected a new degree of uncertainty into the 2012 presidential campaign, impacting candidates' schedules and early voting opportunities just nine days before Election Day.

President Barack Obama called the storm "serious and big" following a briefing at the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA), warning residents in the storm's path "to take this very seriously."

The president also canceled campaign trips to Virginia and Colorado scheduled for early this week, the last full week of campaigning this election, in order to monitor Hurricane Sandy. The storm's impending landfall was poised to add a new variable to a presidential contest that has tightened considerably in its closing days, along with scores of downballot races up and down the East Coast.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney canceled planned stops in Virginia — one of the most hotly-contested battleground states this fall — on Sunday and headed to Ohio instead. 

Obama spent Sunday in Washington, where he traveled to FEMA headquarters following church services early this afternoon. The administration authorized several emergency declarations for states sitting in Sandy's path, and Obama convened a conference call with administration officials and governors in the storm's path to receive an update on preparations.

The storm put some of Obama's campaigning on hold, as he canceled a northern Virginia event for that afternoon, along with an event in Colorado Springs on Tuesday. Obama was still set, though, to travel to Youngtown, Ohio on Monday morning. The president appears — for now — intent upon returning to the campaign trail on Tuesday evening in Green Bay, Wis. His campaign also advised on Sunday afternoon that two stops on Wednesday in Ohio would go forward.

The storm might have rearranged Romney's own campaign itinerary, though it's unclear whether the GOP presidential hopeful will be able to return to Virginia soon. Romney didn't address the storm in his remarks in Celine, Ohio, but his running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, urged voters in the Buckeye State to keep East Coasters in their thoughts and prayers.

Nonetheless, the hurricane could prove to be the proverbial "October Surprise" of this campaign as it upended other elements of the election well before it had even made landfall.

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) canceled early voting in his state for Monday, a decision other east coast governors could mirror. That could have an especially pronounced impact on a state like Virginia, a battleground state in the presidential election and home to a competitive Senate race.

Late Sunday, Governor Dannel P. Malloy signed an executive order to extend in-person voter registration in Connecticut to Thursday, Nov. 1. The deadline had originally been Tuesday.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, said on Sunday's TODAY show that he didn't worry about power outages or other complications from the storm diminishing voting in the state.

"It's going to be, probably, seven days from the time the storm passes 'til Election Day," he said. "We've already taken precautions to move up polling places to a higher spot for restoration. The power companies are well aware of that. So I don't think it's going to interfere with voting."

But Democrats are counting on robust turnout — both through early voting and on Nov. 6 — to propel Obama to a second term. While Sandy's projected path is uncertain, its rain and wind could discourage voters in the key swing state of Ohio from voting early, a practice employed by both campaigns to bank votes ahead of Election Day.

"Obviously we want unfettered access to the polls, because we believe that the more people come out, the better we’re going to do,” David Axelrod, a senior adviser to Obama's re-election campaign, said Sunday on CNN. “And so, to the extent that it makes it harder, that’s a source of concern.”

The president himself downplayed worries about the storm's impact on voting. 

"We don't anticipate that at this point but we're obviously going to have to take a look," he said in Washington following his FEMA briefing.

Hurricane Sandy is barreling toward the East Coast and could deliver the presidential campaign an unpredictable, but impactful, October surprise.

It remains too early to determine precisely where Sandy will make landfall or just how severe the storm might be, but the projections for its path have it aimed toward the mid-Atlantic region, likely impacting hotly-contested battleground states.

Sandy was briefly downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm by the NHC early Saturday, but it returned to hurricane strength within a few hours. 

Warnings as Sandy heads north 

Extensive damage, power outages, and the resulting news coverage could push the election into the background, at least in that region, and could wreak havoc on campaign plans for the final week of the race between President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

Travel schedules, television advertising buys, and voter outreach could all be impacted … and in some cases, already have been.

A Romney official said Friday that the campaign is keeping a very close eye on the storm and had already decided to cancel a planned rally on Sunday night in Virginia Beach. Vice President Joe Biden also cancelled a Virginia Beach event on Saturday, and a rally for First Lady Michelle Obama planned for Tuesday at the University of New Hampshire in Durham was also canceled, officials said Friday.

Said the Obama campaign of the change in the vice president's schedule, "This ... is being taken out of an abundance of caution to ensure that all local law enforcement and emergency management resources can stay focused on ensuring the safety of people who might be impacted by the storm." 

Slideshow: Sandy barrels through the Caribbean

After strong winds and heavy rain washed out bridges and damaged homes in multiple countries, the hurricane looks toward the northeastern U.S.

Launch slideshow

It isn't yet clear whether Sandy will affect Obama’s scheduled events with former president Bill Clinton in Florida and Virginia on Monday.

Since March, the two presidential campaigns and outside groups have invested $144 million in radio and TV ads in Virginia, with $27 million spent just in the past two weeks. Virginia ranks third in the amount of presidential campaign advertising, after Ohio and Florida.

If local TV stations in Virginia interrupt their regularly scheduled programming in order to broadcast bulletins and live coverage of the storm’s impact, then a campaign ad which had been booked for a specific time on a specific station would not air.

The station would refund the money paid for the ad, but at this point in the election season, campaigns don’t want their money back -- they want their ads to run. 

RELATED: Ad spending on presidential race surpasses $900 million

Of course, even if stations do run those already-booked campaign ads, thousands of Virginia homes might be without power … and millions of dollars in ad buys could be still wasted.

After the intense “derecho” storm swept through the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic region with 70-mile-per-hour winds on June 29, electricity for millions of customers was effectively knocked out.

In some areas around Washington, D.C., power was out for a week. And outages in Virginia due to Sandy could conceivably last into Election Day itself.

Voting requires polling locations which have the lights on and aren't under water, so this storm also raises the question of how election officials are preparing to ensure that balloting isn’t disrupted on Election Day.

According to Virginia State Board of Elections spokeswoman Nikki Sheridan, the board has been coordinating with the state Department of Emergency Management, the Virginia State Police, the state Department of Transportation, major utility companies, and the 134 voting registrars who administer the election across the state “to monitor the weather situation and, if necessary … act accordingly.”  

The board has told local election officials that “unless conditions render the voting process unsafe” for employees and voters, registrars should keep their offices “open and to continue the in-person voting process” already underway in the state. 

The final decision whether to close a general registrar’s office “will be made by local authorities or first responders after consultation with your office and electoral board,” the board said.

RELATED: Focusing on Ohio and Colorado

In a press conference Friday afternoon, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Romney supporter, said, “There are obviously concerns about making sure we’re ready for Election Day which will only be a week after the departure of this storm.”

He said that the president of Dominion Power, the state’s major power provider, has told him that the utility would add election locations “as a top priority for power restoration in addition to hospitals and schools and so forth, so I think that is prudent as well, but we don’t anticipate adverse election issues at this time.”

He said the electric utility had a “well-thought out set of priorities for what to restore” and “at this point I don’t see anything happening that would interfere with the election.”

He also said “I expect both candidates and both parties to monitor the situation and if they think they’re going to be interfering with first responder operations” to cancel their Virginia campaign events. “They’re not going to get coverage and they’re not going to get people coming out (to events) because they’re not going to stand out in the rain so they’d be smart to make alternative plans.”

Ross Goldstein, deputy administrator of the Maryland Board of Elections, said Friday, “We’re in contact with state emergency management. We’ve given utility companies a list of polling locations so that they know where our needs are.”

He added that “all of our voting equipment has battery backup,” but noted that, obviously, electricity would be needed to keep the lights on at polling locations.

As in Virginia, Maryland voters have the option of early voting, beginning in the state on Saturday, with one-to-five polling places per county.

In a conference call on Friday, elections officials in Maryland and eight other East Coast states conferred with Louisiana Commissioner of Elections Angie Rogers to find out what officials in her state have learned from coping with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and other subsequent storms.

Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler said Friday that contingency plans must be made for both before and after Election Day.

“Number one, before the storm, secure the (voting) equipment, move it if necessary, get it out of harm’s way,” he said.

“Number two, get good information on where your poll workers are going to be, make sure you have their cell numbers and evacuation plans so you can get in touch with them if you’ve moved a precinct," he said.

"Then after the storm, determine if your locations are still viable and usable and if they’re not, make sure you move and consolidate precincts. We did that here in Louisiana with the big mayoral election after Katrina. As long as you have locations, power and equipment or paper ballots -- you can still have the election and go forward," he added.

Schedler said another tip for elections officials in storm-affected areas: “Make sure you have a good relationship with the National Guard in your state. Here in Louisiana we used the National Guard to set up large tents for ‘mega-sites.’ They provided us generators. And think about public restrooms, you may need to bring in some Portalets (portable toilets) when setting up as site like that. You need to anticipate just like you do in any emergency.”

He also suggested that state officials in Sandy's path urge people to vote early.

NBC News’ Garrett Haake contributed to this report.