UPDATE 4:35 P.M.
CORRECTION AND APOLOGY: Halston Media incorrectly identified Phoenix Graphics as the printer of the preprinted Election Day ballots involved in Westchester County’s ballot-scanning problems. Phoenix Graphics did not print those ballots and was not responsible for the issue.
Our error arose from sample-ballot PDFs available through Westchester County’s official polling-place website. We checked approximately a dozen addresses throughout our coverage area, and each PDF identified Phoenix Graphics as the printer at the bottom of Page 2. We incorrectly interpreted that credit as identifying the company that printed the Election Day ballots. We should have verified that connection before publication.
Phoenix Graphics clarified that it provides the county’s Board of Elections with vote-by-mail services, affidavit ballot printing, and sample-ballot PDF creation for the county’s website. It does not print the county’s preprinted Election Day ballots.
It is unclear at this time who printed the election-day ballots. Regardless, in their most recent statement, the New York State Board of Elections attributed Tuesday's widespread ballot-scanning problems to a discrepancy in election programming rather than an issue with the ballots themselves.
According to the state board, a change affecting a contest in one Westchester municipality required updated election programming after the county's initial preparation and testing of voting equipment. The updated programming was tested and deployed for early voting and for Election Day machines in that municipality, but machines elsewhere in the county continued operating with the original programming.
As a result, those machines could not recognize or accept the Election Day ballots.
The state board said it is working with the Westchester County Board of Elections to deploy replacement election media using the updated programming previously tested for early voting. The immediate goal, the state board said, is to restore scanning capabilities to at least one machine at every polling location, with additional machines expected to come online throughout the day.
In the meantime, voters can continue casting ballots through established emergency procedures. Completed ballots are being securely maintained under bipartisan oversight and will be scanned and counted once the machines are operational.
The state board emphasized that there are no identified concerns with the ballot paper or its physical characteristics. It also said the affected scanners rejected ballots they could not recognize rather than incorrectly counting them.
‘Every valid vote will be counted, and the established canvass, recanvass, and post-election audit procedures will remain in place,” the board said. “Accuracy will never be sacrificed for speed."
UPDATE: 10:57 a.m.
Election officials have distinguished Tuesday’s pre-printed ballots from those printed on demand during early voting, when voters did not experience the same scanning problems.
The Westchester County Board of Elections has urged voters to remain in line and complete their ballots as directed by poll workers. Ballots that cannot be scanned are being secured in designated orange emergency ballot bags, which officials said will remain monitored and will be counted in accordance with election procedures.
UPDATE: 9:55 a.m.
In a statement at 8:16 a.m., the Westchester County Board of Elections cited the thickness of the ballots and later, at 8:37 a.m. it issued a corrected statement and just said “an issue involving paper ballots” across Westchester County is “preventing voting machines from accepting ballots at polling locations.” Separately, a poll worker has confirmed to Halston Media that the thickness of the ballots is the cause of the scanning problems.
As Election Day voting got underway Tuesday morning, election workers and candidates told Halston Media that voting machines across Westchester County were down.
As of 8:15 a.m., the machines remained out of service as officials worked to correct the problem.
A Westchester-based poll worker told Halston Media they had received "no explanation" about the cause of the problem and no estimate about when it would be fixed.
Because Westchester uses paper ballots that are then fed into voting machines, voters arriving at the polls have been able to cast their ballots in elections for Congress, state Senate, Assembly, governor, attorney general, comptroller, judges and local offices throughout the Halston Media readership area.
The Westchester County Board of Elections confirmed the countywide problem, according to News 12, and instructed poll workers to check voters in and provide paper ballots. Completed ballots are being placed in what the campaign worker described to Halston Media as "emergency orange bags" while technicians work to resolve the issue.
As of publication, there was no estimate for when the machines would be back in service.
Don Scott, a Republican poll worker serving at District 2 in Mount Kisco, told Halston Media that a source had attributed the scanning problem to the width of the paper ballots.
Scott said Election Day ballots are preprinted and supplied to polling locations in packs, while early-voting ballots are printed on-site as voters arrive.
The Board of Elections said technicians would be dispatched to polling locations experiencing problems.
Another poll worker told Halston Media there was no estimate as to when the machines would be back online but said all votes would be counted.
The bags will be delivered to the Board of Elections at the end of the night, and those ballots will be counted before ballots cast through the machines.
"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 of Elections said in a statement Tuesday morning. "Your voice matters. Your vote matters. Please stay in line and vote."
Scott said most voters at his polling location were “shrugging and going with the flow,” although he described one "irate" voter who left after saying he would return when the machines were working.
Scott expressed concern that reports of the malfunction could discourage participation.
“IMHO, this is going to have a voter suppression effect, as some people will hear that the machines aren't working and won't vote,” he said.
This is a developing story.
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