Ballot scanners reject ballots across Westchester County on Election Day, and voters’ ballots go into sealed orange bags to count later, officials say

Election Day in one of the most closely watched suburban counties in the country opened with a breakdown. Voting machines at polling sites across Westchester County, the suburb just north of New York City, stopped accepting ballots on Tuesday morning, Nov. 3, according to CBS New York, which reported that the scanners started having problems when the polls opened at 6 a.m. ET (3 a.m. PT). CBS New York, citing the county executive, described the trouble as hitting most polling sites; the reasons remained undefined when that report last updated at 8:42 a.m. ET. Voting itself did not stop. Voters received instructions to stay in line, fill out a paper ballot and let poll workers place it in an orange emergency ballot bag for counting later, according to CBS New York and News 12 Hudson Valley.

The county’s Board of Elections changed its explanation within the first hours. An early statement blamed “the thickness of paper ballots,” and less than an hour later the board issued a correction, according to NBC New York. The updated statement, published in full by FOX 5 New York and posted as an image by Westchester County government on X at 5:30 a.m. PT, reads in part: “The Westchester County Board of Elections (BOE) is aware of an issue involving paper ballots that is preventing voting machines from accepting ballots at polling locations throughout the County.” Gothamist reported that the subsequent statement removed mention of the paper-thickness problem. At least one outlet, ABC7 New York, still attributed the problem to ballot thickness in its version of the story when this desk read it. Steve Kastenbaum noted on X that the board had removed the reference to thick ballots and wrote that the same ballots had also served voters during nine days of early voting (@SKastenbaum); this desk could not independently confirm that the early-voting ballots used identical stock.

The board pledged that every ballot will count. Its statement says the orange bags “will remain secure and monitored” and that the ballots inside “will subsequently be counted in accordance with applicable election procedures,” according to FOX 5 New York. “Let us be absolutely clear: Every eligible vote will be counted,” the board wrote, adding that “no voter should be discouraged from participating in this election because of this issue.” The board also apologized to voters and poll workers. News 12 reported that the bags will go to the Board of Elections at the end of the night and that those ballots “will be counted first, before ballots cast through the machines,” according to News 12 Hudson Valley, and that the board planned to send technicians to the affected polling locations.

State officials backed the county’s instructions. The New York State Board of Elections said voting faced no disruption, according to CBS New York, and said in a statement: “Long-established emergency ballot procedures have been implemented, where completed ballots are secured, under bipartisan control, and will be counted. While technical issues can be frustrating, contingency procedures exist for precisely these circumstances.” New York Attorney General Letitia James wrote on X at 4:38 a.m. PT that her office “is monitoring this issue with scanners in Westchester and is in touch with the state and local Boards of Elections as they work on a solution,” adding: “Westchester voters can still safely fill out and turn in their ballots at their polling locations. Your votes will count” (@NewYorkStateAG). Westchester’s Board of Legislators said “every eligible vote will be counted,” and that ballots that cannot go through a scanner will get “securely collected and counted in accordance with election procedures,” according to CBS News live updates.

The breakdown landed inside one of the House races both parties watch most closely. New York’s 17th Congressional District, held by Republican Rep. Mike Lawler and contested by Democrat Cait Conley, “includes most of northern Westchester and a sliver of southern Westchester,” according to CBS New York. Lawler wrote on X at 4:23 a.m. PT: “There is a problem with every ballot scanner in Westchester County. We do not yet know the exact cause of the issue, whether it is the ballot or the machine. The Board of Elections is working with their vendors to resolve it” (@lawler4ny). He added, as quoted by FOX 5 New York: “However, every ballot will be counted. Stay on line and vote. Do not leave the polling place without voting.” Conley wrote: “There are technical issues with ballot scanners in Westchester, but don't worry: you can still vote and every vote is being counted!” according to ABC7 New York. In a post quoted by CBS New York, she added: “Don't be dissuaded and have your voice heard. The issue is being worked on diligently by the Board of Elections in a bipartisan manner.” Lawler’s “every ballot scanner” description goes further than CBS New York’s “most polling sites”; this desk found no official count of affected sites.

Reports from individual polling places filled in the picture. Problems came in from New Rochelle, North Salem and Ossining, and at St. Paul’s Church in Ossining people said voting machines rejected all ballots, according to NBC New York. The Town of North Salem alerted residents that scanners did not accept ballots, according to ABC7 New York. A caller at the Hendrick Hudson Free Library in Montrose said machines did not work and poll workers placed ballots in bags, and a poll worker at the Ukrainian Youth Center in Yonkers reported the same, according to News 12 Hudson Valley. At Ridgeway Elementary School in White Plains, a caller described confusion, with some voters uncomfortable leaving their ballots in bags and looking to vote elsewhere, News 12 reported. The Rockland, Dutchess and Putnam county boards of elections reported no problems with their machines, according to the same report.

Voters and poll workers described the morning in their own words. Ben Hort, a 58-year-old commercial printer, told NBC News that he went to his polling station in Greenburgh first thing and heard the machines did not work, and that he could cast a paper ballot or return later. “I'll try to go back later. I assume they'll get it straightened out,” he said, while voicing concern that some voters “aren't gonna vote.” Bill Moss, a 67-year-old election inspector at another Greenburgh site, said all three of his location’s machines had broken down and that “the machines are useless to us right now,” according to NBC News. Andrew Dallos, a voter whose photo leads this story, wrote on X at 6:29 a.m. PT: “The voting machines are not working in Westchester County, New York. I filled out my ballot and placed it in a sealed bag” (@adallos).

What happens next remains open. County Executive Ken Jenkins did not say exactly what went wrong, and no word had emerged on when the problem would get fixed, according to CBS New York. Lawler said the board has worked with its vendors; no outlet this desk read named the scanner vendor or gave a technical cause. Gothamist reported that voters’ ballots will count but that delays may occur, and that Westchester “could be a critical swing county in a number of races, including the gubernatorial election.” NBC News reported that the problem could delay results in the Lawler–Conley race. Polls in Westchester close at 9 p.m. ET (6 p.m. PT), and County Executive Ken Jenkins wrote on X before the problems surfaced that anyone in line by 9 p.m. can still vote (@KenJenkinsNY).

The Westchester trouble arrived on a heavy national Election Day. The Department of Justice said early Tuesday that, for the first time, it will deploy approximately 1,000 election monitors and observers to all 50 states, according to CBS News live updates. This desk found no report tying federal monitors to the Westchester scanner problem. This story will update if the county announces a cause, a fix or a count of the ballots set aside in emergency bags.