Ballot scanners across Westchester County stopped accepting ballots on Tuesday, Nov. 3, forcing poll workers to collect completed ballots in emergency orange bags.
The Westchester County Board of Elections (BOE) said in a statement that it was aware of a paper ballot issue preventing voting machines from accepting ballots at polling locations throughout the county. The BOE said every eligible vote would still be counted.
"There is a county-wide issue at all of the polling locations where the ballot is not going through the scanner," County Executive Ken Jenkins said in a video statement released around 10 a.m. on the county's YouTube channel.
The exact cause remained unclear. The BOE initially attributed the failures to "the thickness of paper ballots," but issued a corrected statement less than an hour later removing the word "thickness," NBC New York reported. Gov. Kathy Hochul separately told reporters the problem appeared to stem from "wrong size paper."
What voters should do
Poll workers directed voters to fill out their paper ballots as usual. Ballots that scanners could not read were placed in designated orange emergency ballot bags. The BOE said those bags would remain secure, monitored and counted under standard election procedures.
Polls were still scheduled to close at 9 p.m. Jenkins said there was "not a need at this time" to extend polling hours, according to NBC New York. It was not clear whether the scanner failures would delay the vote count, lohud reported.
The New York State Board of Elections said completed ballots were being secured under bipartisan control and would be counted, according to lohud. The state board said emergency-ballot procedures had been implemented.
Voters describe the scene
Brad Kennedy, 37, of Croton-on-Hudson, told lohud he was the first voter at his polling place when it opened at 6 a.m. He said the scanner repeatedly rejected his ballot, even after he turned it over and tried again. Poll workers tried multiple times and pulled out a pamphlet for instructions.
Elizabeth Belanger, 54, of Sleepy Hollow, told lohud she voted at 7:15 a.m. even though machines were already having problems. She said poll workers told her she could cast her ballot or come back later.
Reports of problems came in from New Rochelle, North Salem and Ossining, NBC New York reported.
Officials urge voters to stay in line
Rep. Mike Lawler, the Republican incumbent in New York's 17th Congressional District, said every ballot scanner in the county was experiencing problems. "We do not yet know the exact cause of the issue, whether it is the ballot or the machine," Lawler said, according to lohud.
Cait Conley, the Democratic challenger in the 17th District race, also urged voters not to leave. NY Attorney General Letitia James said on X that her office was monitoring the situation and was in contact with state and county election officials.
Hochul said the problem could take many hours to fix. "Every single vote will be counted, without a doubt," Hochul said, according to NBC New York.
Voters with questions can call the Election Protection hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE. Polls close at 9 p.m.
