Washington ( CNN ) -- With Superstorm Sandy leaving communities under water , stranding millions without power and consuming public resources in several states , could next Tuesday 's vote for president be moved to a later date ? Sandy leaves election officials scrambling . No , it ca n't . Without passage of a new federal law , voting for president is required to take place on Tuesday , November 6 , as planned . But , partial postponements of voting in some affected areas are possible , consistent with the laws governing the election of the president and vice president . Here 's why : . When people go to the polls on Election Day , they are n't voting directly for their choice for president or vice president . Instead , they are voting to select representatives -- or `` electors '' -- to the Electoral College , the body that actually determines who will be president and vice president . Candidates , voters forced to navigate Sandy . The Constitution gives Congress the authority to determine `` time '' of choosing those electors . In 1845 , Congress passed a law that set the Tuesday immediately following the first Monday in November of every election year as Election Day across the country . The same law also gives states some leeway in picking electors to the Electoral College . But to exercise that leeway , a state must have `` held an election for the purpose of choosing electors , '' and `` failed to make a choice on the day prescribed by law . '' When that happens , the law says `` the electors may be appointed on a subsequent day in such manner as the legislature of such state may direct . '' Sandy 's impact : State by state . Based on this , the Congressional Research Service , a federal agency that provides legislative research support to Congress , concluded in a 2004 report that a state could probably hold presidential voting on Election Day in places unaffected by a natural disaster but postpone it until a later date in affected areas without violating federal law so long as the state met other legal requirements relating to electing the president and vice president . But the law passed by Congress setting Election Day only allows a state to pick its electors on a later date if it has already held an election on Election Day and `` failed to make a choice '' on that day . So a complete statewide postponement would arguably violate the 1845 law , the 2004 report suggested . But the report also pointed out that the Supreme Court has emphasized the role states play in selecting the presidential electors , so a state might be allowed to postpone an entire statewide vote for president in emergency circumstances like a hurricane or other natural disaster . CNN Senior Correspondent Joe Johns contributed to this report .
Presidential Election Day is set by Congress under its authority in the Constitution . Election Day can only be changed if a new federal law is passed . But a state will probably be allowed to postpone voting only in disaster-affected areas . Statewide postponement of the presidential vote is an open legal question .