Voting Machines in New York's Westchester County Reject Paper Ballots, but Board Vows Every Ballot Will Be Counted

Voting machines in Westchester County, New York, are not accepting paper ballots at polling locations throughout the county. The Westchester County Board of Elections confirmed the problem in a statement on Tuesday morning. The county is the state's seventh most populous.

The board said an issue involving the paper ballots is preventing some voting machines from accepting ballots at polling places across the county. It said it is communicating with state and county officials and with poll workers to address the issue, while repeatedly affirming that all paper ballots will be counted.

Under the board's instructions, voters should continue to complete their paper ballots as instructed by poll workers. Ballots that cannot be processed by the machines will be placed in designated orange emergency ballot bags, which will remain secure and monitored, and those ballots will subsequently be counted.

Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins called the situation 'unacceptable' in a statement. He urged voters to remain in line and exercise their right to vote, and said he had directed county officials, including representatives from the Law Department, to monitor the voting process. Once the issues are resolved, he said, he will convene a bipartisan team to review the decisions and failures that led to the problem.

Republican Representative Mike Lawler first alerted voters to the scanner problem in a Tuesday morning social media post. He wrote that there was a problem with every ballot scanner in the county, that the exact cause — the ballot or the machine — was not yet known, and that the Board of Elections was working with its vendors. Speaking later outside a polling location in Pearl River, he said the paper ballots appeared to be too thick for the machines' formatting, that the machines were being fixed, and that every ballot would be counted.

The board also encouraged voters to remain in line, exercise patience and cast their ballots, and apologised to voters and poll workers for the inconvenience. 'Let us be absolutely clear: every eligible vote will be counted. No voter should be discouraged from participating in this election because of this issue,' the board said.

New York's Democratic Attorney General Letitia James said her office is monitoring the scanner issue in Westchester and is in touch with the state and local boards of elections as they work on a solution. She also reminded residents of New York's Election Protection Hotline, (866) 390-2992, for voters experiencing problems at the polls.

Outside a polling place in Yonkers, voter Patrick Reagan, who has been voting in the county for 40 years, said he hoped all the votes would be accounted for properly. Another voter, Linda Giaimo, said she had a problem with having to put her vote in a bag while all the machines were down, and that she would be calling the Board of Elections.

New York's polls opened at 6 a.m. and will close at 9 p.m. local time.