New York Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul assured voters in Westchester County that their ballots would be counted on Tuesday after ballot scanners experienced problems accepting paper ballots. The Westchester County Board of Elections confirmed that a problem involving paper ballots was preventing voting machines from accepting them at polling places throughout the county. Officials said emergency procedures were being used to allow voting to continue.
Completed ballots were being secured in designated orange emergency ballot bags to be counted under established election procedures, according to county officials. Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins said during a press conference that up to 250,000 ballots have been impacted. Newsweek reached out to Jenkins by email Tuesday for further comment.
Speaking to reporters, Hochul repeatedly sought to reassure voters in the county that the problems would not prevent their ballots from being counted. I just had to say that every time, every vote will be counted,” she said. Hochul said the state and county boards of elections were coordinating their response and that contingency measures were available.
They should continue to vote. If they're in line, stay in line, and there is a backup plan that's planned for all the contingencies,” she said. The governor continued: “The state board of elections and the county board of elections are working through coordination to make sure we get through this.
We understand that there's been a glitch, but every vote is going to be counted.” She did not identify a technical cause of the problem in the remarks provided. New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, wrote in an X post that her office is monitoring the issue and "is in touch with the state and local Boards of Elections as they work on a solution," adding that "Westchester voters can still safely fill out and turn in their ballots at their polling locations. Your votes will count." Westchester County officials also acknowledged widespread problems with ballots and scanners.
Jenkins said in a statement that officials were aware of “the ongoing problems with ballots and voting scanners across Westchester County.” “My office is fully aware of the ongoing problems with ballots and voting scanners across Westchester County, and I want to be absolutely clear: this situation is unacceptable,” he said in a statement posted on X. The county had earlier posted a separate statement from the executive addressing ballot problems in Westchester County. The New York State Board of Elections also issued a statement, saying the affected ballots would remain secure under bipartisan control and be counted, while established contingency procedures allowed voting to continue.
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