A creek in New Jersey after the hurricane.

These efforts have all been to help those in troubling situations, especially affected by Hurricane Sandy, by providing an option to still voice their opinions. While it was already a concern that voting registration through e-mail could easily lead to voter fraud, voters using the e-mail option are still required to print, sign, and scan a physical ballot before e-mailing it to their county clerk. It is true that this may lead to easily manipulating votes online, but the fact of the matter is that the various county clerk e-mails are not getting the virtual ballots anyway. In at least two major counties, the e-mail addresses provided are not even accepting e-mails. 

From Buzzfeed:

Jason Tanz, a Wired Magazine editor who lives in Essex County, told BuzzFeed he filled out a ballot application, set it to the clerk — and received no response. He called twice and emailed, he said, — only to find that the email address was bouncing.

"If you're going to do something like this, you have to do it right," Tanz said in an email. "This was obviously a rush job, and I'm sure thousands of people won't be able to vote because they couldnt figure out where to send their applications, and couldn't get anyone to tell them.

Even in the cities where the e-mail ballots are allegedly working, other problems are still occurring. Absentee ballots are not coming through and many potential voters have yet to receive their confirmation.