Voters urged to turn out despite countywide ballot scanning glitch

By THANE GRAUEL

Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins on Tuesday urged people to continue casting ballots at their polling places and assured them their votes would be counted despite a systemwide glitch with polling place scanners.

Problems scanning completed ballots were immediately apparent after polling places opened to voters at 6 a.m. The scanners showed errors and the ballots, in accordance with procedures, were placed in orange bags to be counted later.

The problem was initially thought to be caused by the thickness of the printed ballots. Jenkins said about 1:30 p.m. that that was not the case. Instead, the problems seemed to stem from the way ballots were printed by a vendor.

The Westchester County Board of Elections said later this afternoon the problems resulted from a programming update that prevented scanners from processing completed ballots.

Jenkins said the public was “furious.”

“This is not the way that this should be going,” Jenkins said. “But do not lose your opportunity to be heard.”

Jenkins spoke on behalf of county government but made it clear during his press conference that the Westchester Board of Elections was not under his jurisdiction.

“The Board of Elections does not report to us,” he said. “They’re not in this building.”

He said the bipartisan board reports to the state Board of Elections.

“The situation is completely unacceptable,” Jenkins said. “My job is to look out for the voters here in Westchester and you’re furious, and I am as well. We’re a county of over 1 million people and we have many pivotal races today, including two congressional races.”

Jenkins said a bipartisan team would be formed to conduct a review of what went wrong.

Scanning machines were being updated municipality by municipality, beginning in northern Westchester, he said. Some polling places have one scanner. Others have several.

“They’re not turning away voters,” Jenkins said. “We’re not saying come back later.”

Several towns and community groups updated people on the problem Tuesday and passed along information from the county. Pound Ridge Town Supervisor Kevin Hansan was among them.

“While this may cause some delays, please don’t let it discourage you from voting,” he said in an email to the public. “I encourage everyone to be patient with the poll workers, who are doing their best under difficult circumstances.”