WESTCHESTER COUNTY, New York (WABC) —
A countywide voting problem that disrupted Election Day operations across Westchester County was caused by a programming glitch, according to the New York State Board of Elections.
Since officials determined the cause of the issue, all the ballots cast Tuesday can eventually be scanned and Rep. Mike Lawler said there is agreement between both camps to count them after voting concludes, which will be submitted to a judge Tuesday afternoon.
Ten voting machines will be set up at the Westchester County Board of Elections headquarters and they can process 2,000 ballots per hour.
When voting ends at 9 p.m., the paper ballots in emergency orange bags will be driven via police escort to the location -- they will not be opened at the polling site.
They will be scanned under supervision of attorneys from both sides and it will take several hours to scan them all in.Lawler noted "a lot of Westchester voters voted early. There are already a significant number of ballots that have been counted.”
The issue surfaced Tuesday morning when voting machines at polling locations across the county began rejecting ballots. Municipalities, including the Town of North Salem, alerted residents that scanners were not accepting ballots and advised voters to continue casting ballots while election officials worked to resolve the problem.
The Board of Elections had said earlier that ballot paper thickness was causing the voting machines from accepting ballots, but later it was deemed to be from a programming issue.
Voters whose ballots cannot be scanned were directed to place them in designated orange emergency ballot bags. Election officials said those ballots would remain secure, be monitored and counted in accordance with election procedures.
County Executive Ken Jenkins said the machines were not hacked and there was nothing of that nature wrong with the voting process.
The New York State BOE released a statement that said the glitch was traced to a change affecting a contest in one municipality after the county's Election Day voting equipment had been prepared and tested.
That change required an update to the county's election programming. Scanners that retained the original programming could not recognize or accept the ballots being used on Tuesday.
Officials have identified no problems with the paper used to print the ballots or any other ballot characteristics that would prevent them from being scanned once the equipment issue was resolved.
The disruption has drawn particular attention because Westchester County is a key battleground in New York's closely watched 17th Congressional District race between Democratic challenger Cait Conley and Republican Rep. Lawler. Both candidates urged voters to stay in line and cast ballots despite the technical issues.