A photo sent by a campaign worker shows the "emergency orange bags that will be used to store votes until voting machines come back online in Westchester County.
It has been an Election Day like no other in Westchester County — for voters, election officials, candidates and those of us in the media trying to make sense of a problem that prevented voting machines from accepting paper ballots.
The fact that this happened in a purple area, amid one of the most closely watched congressional races of the cycle — the contest for New York's 17th Congressional District between Republican incumbent Mike Lawler and Democrat Cait Conley — turned a local problem into a national story that even drew coverage from overseas.
And while the race for NY-17 made headlines outside the district, the problem was no less vexing for candidates running for local and statewide offices.
As a close supporter of one candidate running for local office texted Halston Media, "Stress stressed stressed after that crap that was going on with the voting machines today!"
The trouble started almost as soon as polls opened at 6 a.m. Halston Media received a text that machines were down from a poll worker in New Castle. Soon, election workers across Westchester were reporting that voting machines were rejecting paper ballots.
Voters could still fill out their ballots, but instead of feeding them into scanners, poll workers were collecting them in orange emergency ballot bags to be counted later.
Why was this happening and when would it get fixed?
No one was sure.
Election workers told Halston Media they were receiving conflicting information. Initially, they were told the problem was the thickness of the preprinted Election Day ballots. That explanation appeared in an initial statement from the Westchester County Board of Elections at 8:16 a.m., but a corrected statement 21 minutes later referred only to "an issue involving paper ballots."
Adding to the confusion was the fact that ballots had worked during early voting. But unlike Election Day ballots, which are printed in advance and delivered to polling sites, early-voting ballots are printed on demand when registered voters sign in.
By late afternoon, the New York State Board of Elections had identified the problem: a programming error, not a problem with the paper.
According to the state board, a change in one municipality's election required updated programming. The new software was used during early voting and on Election Day in that municipality, but machines elsewhere in Westchester were still running the original version.
As a result, those machines could not recognize the Election Day ballots.
The state board said there was nothing wrong with the ballots themselves and that the scanners had rejected ballots rather than incorrectly counting them.
Meanwhile, voters wondered if their votes would be counted — with some reportedly refusing to vote until the machines were working.
As the day went on, officials worked to get at least one scanner working at every polling place. An election worker in Mount Kisco told Halston Media that one machine was operational at their polling place by midafternoon.
The problems also attracted political commentators and social media influencers, some of whom raised suspicions of election interference.
Both Lawler and Conley urged voters to cast their ballots despite the problems.
"The technical issue with scanners at polling locations in Westchester County will not prevent you from voting or from your vote being counted," Conley wrote on X.
"I voted earlier today in Westchester and it was quick and easy!" she added. "Polls in Westchester County and across NY-17 are open and operational. If you are in line by 9 p.m., your vote will be counted."
Lawler also took to X, urging voters to remain cast their ballots.
"Every ballot will be counted. Stay on line and vote. Do not leave the polling place without voting," he wrote.
Later, appearing on Fox News, Lawler dismissed suggestions that the problems were deliberate.
"There's no shenanigans going on here," he said.
At a polling location in Mount Kisco, Republican poll worker Don Scott told Halston Media that most voters were "shrugging and going with the flow." But one "irate" voter left, saying he would return when the machines were working.
Scott worried that reports of the problems might discourage others from voting.
"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.
With so many ballots going unscanned, the next question was how — and when — they would be counted.
Lawler said Democrats and Republicans had agreed on a plan, subject to court approval, to collect the emergency ballots after polls close at 9 p.m.
Police would escort the sealed orange ballot bags to the Westchester County Board of Elections, where they would be opened and counted under bipartisan supervision, rather than at individual polling locations.
According to ABC7, the plan called for 10 voting machines at Board of Elections headquarters, each capable of scanning approximately 2,000 ballots an hour — up to 20,000 an hour combined.
Still, transporting and processing the ballots could delay results into the early morning hours.
The state Board of Elections said the usual canvassing, recanvassing and post-election audits would remain in place.
"Every valid vote will be counted," the board said. "Accuracy will never be sacrificed for speed."
Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins called the situation unacceptable and said he would convene a bipartisan team to investigate what went wrong.
The county Board of Elections also apologized to voters and poll workers and urged residents not to leave without voting.
"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. "Your voice matters. Your vote matters. Please stay in line and vote."
The changing explanations led Halston Media to incorrectly identify Phoenix Graphics as the company that printed the Election Day ballots. In researching the initial reports of paper problems, we checked sample-ballot PDFs for approximately a dozen addresses on the county's official polling-place website. Each identified Phoenix Graphics as the printer.
However, Phoenix Graphics did not print the preprinted Election Day ballots and was not responsible for the problem. The company provides the county with vote-by-mail services, affidavit ballot printing and sample-ballot PDFs for its website. We should have verified the company's involvement before publication and apologize to Phoenix Graphics and our readers for the error.
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