Election Parties Are Canceled or Toned Down Erin Baiano for The New York Times The election night party at Liberty Hall in the Ace Hotel. RONALD O. PERELMAN decided to forgo a party this year. So did Arianna Huffington. Ditto Harvey Weinstein, Georgette Mosbacher, Graydon Carter and Paper Magazine's Kim Hastreiter. What's to celebrate? Ms. Hastreiter said on Monday afternoon, the day before the presidential election. This whole election is about fear on both sides. I am petrified about the Supreme Court. I am petrified about Roe v. Wade. I am petrified by Romney. And I think the Romney people are petrified, too. Whether it was the lingering effect of the hurricane, and a city still in recovery from one of the worst natural disasters in its history, or a general unease about what Tuesday's results would bring, a wide swath of typically social New Yorkers seemed to skip election-night parties this year. Many opted to hunker down in their homes, nervously watching the returns, rather than be out sharing canapés and Champagne with a few hundred of their closest friends. The author Kurt Andersen, often out and about on the city's social scene, stayed home Tuesday night. "It's stressful," he said of election night. I don't want to be around a bunch of strangers. Jim Kelly, the former editor of Time, blamed the weather for much of the scaling back. "Even for those of us who live on the Upper West Side, it hasn't been a good past week," he said on Tuesday afternoon, back home after spending an hour waiting in line to vote. Even Barack Obama can't stop the seas. Some organizations, like Vice and the Galapagos Art Space, scaled back their election night efforts to focus on fund-raising for storm victims. "The mood is more sober," said Reshma Saujani, the former public deputy advocate of New York City and founder of Girls Who Code. I got a lot of text messages asking what's going on for election night. People don't know where to go. Ms. Saujani, a Democrat, had spent the last few days delivering diapers to displaced mothers in Staten Island and the Rockaways. On Tuesday, she hosted an election viewing party at (Le) Poisson Rouge, along with Russell Simmons, which also functioned as a relief fund-raiser. Brian Mazza, a partner in Paige Management Group and a founder of Windsor Custom, called off his private party plans in favor of a public event at Ainsworth Park, which raised money for relief. "People need to take a step back when something like Sandy happens," Mr. Mazza said. Still, this is New York, and not all the parties were canceled or scaled back. At the Ace Hotel, which hosted a viewing party at its aptly named Liberty Hall, there was a skittish energy on Tuesday evening when the event kicked off at 6 p.m. A few hours later, the place was packed. "I'm very political," said the restaurateur Ken Friedman, one of the hosts. He had waited an hour and a half to vote earlier in the day, but was in an enthusiastic mood nonetheless. Enough so that Mr. Friedman was actually hosting two election parties, including one at the Rusty Knot, which was the first event the bar and restaurant had held since suffering damage from Sandy. As Mr. Obama was projected by CNN to win his first three Electoral College votes from Vermont, Mr. Friedman cheered: "As Jay-Z says, "99 problems and Mitt ain't one." " In the crowd was Joanna Bomberg, a senior vice president for music and talent programming strategy at MTV Networks. "I'm nervous," she said about the election, but she hadn't had time to give the race much thought the past week. It's been all about Sandy. I've been working with the cast of the "Jersey Shore" to do a relief event. The storm really hit home. Jersey got the brunt of it. Further south, at Westway, in the West Village, a little storm damage wasn't going to stop Downtown 4 Democracy. Around 8 p.m., the space was without power and the credit card machine was down, but a young stylish crowd turned out anyway. "There was a foot and a half of water in here after Sandy," said Matt Kliegman, an owner of Westway. But it's the presidential race. Storm or not, it's a big deal. Stuart Emmrich contributed reporting. An earlier photo caption incorrectly identified the relationship between Jack Antonoff and Lena Dunham. Mr. Antonoff is Ms. Dunham's boyfriend.