WESTCHESTER COUNTY, New York (WABC) — Thousands of ballots in Westchester County were scanned Tuesday, but thousands more could not be processed because of a programming glitch, prompting election officials to arrange for additional ballot counting under a court-approved agreement.
Bags of ballots were expected to arrive under police escort at the Westchester County Parks Department in Ardsley, where they would be scanned for counting.
The bipartisan county elections board and candidates reached an agreement on how to transport and count the ballots, and a judge signed off on the plan Tuesday night.
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Election officials said many machines were reprogrammed and returned to service throughout the day as workers scrambled to fix as many devices as possible in the Congressional District 17 portion of the county.
The district is the site of the closely watched race between Mike Lawler and Cait Conley.
Both the Republican and Democratic county elections commissioners said the issues that led to the ballot-processing problems would be investigated.
“We are looking at all of those issues, whether it was the printer error, whether it was the programming error, all of those things, and we will provide more details once we are sure,” said Elections Commissioner Tajian M. Nelson.
Republican Elections Commissioner Douglas A. Colety said, “nothing nefarious going on here other than machine or ballot malfunction that’s being addressed. Right now, the focus is on conducting the election, finishing the election, and counting all the votes.”
Officials said ballots that could not be scanned at polling sites would be transported for scanning on machines that were operational. They warned that results in the closely watched District 17 race could be delayed but said every ballot cast Tuesday would be counted, whether it was scanned at a polling place or placed in a secure bag as an emergency ballot.
County elections officials also said they intend to determine the cause of the glitch that sparked speculation and skepticism throughout the day.
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