Westchester County Election Machines Reject Ballots Due to Programming Error

Voting machines across Westchester County, New York, failed to accept paper ballots on Election Day, a problem affecting the state's seventh most populous county. The Board of Elections confirmed the issue on Tuesday morning, noting that the malfunction prevented some machines from recognizing ballots throughout the region. Officials maintained that every vote cast would be tallied and urged residents to remain in line until they could cast their ballots.

The board traced the failure to a specific sequence of events involving election programming. A change affecting a single contest in one municipality required an updated software version. That update was tested and deployed for early voting and for Election Day machines within that specific municipality. However, the rest of the county’s machines continued running the original programming. Because the new ballots were formatted for the updated software, the older machines could not read them.

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., whose district covers a large portion of Westchester County, provided a more technical explanation of the physical mismatch. He told CNN that the ballots were too thick for the existing machines to process. Lawler stated, "There was an issue with the thickness of the ballot and the formatting of the machines. And so none of the machines were accepting the ballot across the entire county." He had previously flagged the scanner problem in a post on X, instructing voters to stay in line and not leave the polling place without voting.

Poll workers responded to the malfunction by implementing an emergency procedure. Multiple voters reported that staff took completed paper ballots and placed them into red or orange bags. Lawler confirmed that these ballots were being stored in emergency voting bags while technicians worked on repairing the machines. The Board of Elections instructed voters to continue filling out their paper ballots as directed. Ballots that the machines could not process were placed into designated orange emergency ballot bags, which remained secure and monitored until final counting.

County Executive Ken Jenkins described the situation as unacceptable. He directed county officials, including representatives from the Law Department, to monitor the voting process closely. Jenkins said he would convene a bipartisan team to review the decisions behind what he called a debacle. The team will determine accountability and ensure the error does not recur. Jenkins stated, "Westchester County voters deserve a fair, secure and seamless election process. Today, we have fallen short of that standard."

The Board of Elections issued an apology to voters and poll workers for the inconvenience. The statement emphasized that every eligible vote would be counted and that no voter should be discouraged from participating. Officials added, "Your voice matters. Your vote matters. Please stay in line and vote."

New York Attorney General Letitia James said her office was monitoring the scanner issue and was in contact with state and local election officials. She wrote on X that Westchester voters could safely fill out and turn in their ballots. James reminded residents of the state's Election Protection Hotline at (866) 390-2992. Polls in New York opened at 6 a.m. and were set to close at 9 p.m.

Voters expressed a mix of patience and frustration during the disruption. Patrick Reagan, a Yonkers resident who said he had voted in Westchester County for 40 years, told Fox News that he hoped all votes would be properly accounted for. Linda Giaimo, who accompanied a friend to vote, said she planned to call the Board of Elections. Giaimo stated, "So now we've got to put our vote in a bag and believe that that bag is going to be delivered. I got a problem with this."

Board officials said the orange bags holding the rejected ballots were being kept secure. They noted that the bags would be counted once the technical issues were resolved. The county is the seventh most populous in New York State. The programming error affected machines outside the specific municipality where the initial contest change was made. Rep. Lawler and County Executive Jenkins both monitored the situation throughout the day. The Attorney General's office continued to track the incident. Voters were instructed to use the paper ballots provided. The machines were being repaired by county technicians. The emergency bags were monitored by poll workers. The voting process continued until the 9 p.m. deadline.