A problem with the barcode on paper ballots at polling locations across New York's suburb of Westchester County left voters frustrated on Election Day morning as officials worked to fix the issue.
Election officials said the tabulator machines that tally the votes were not accepting paper ballots properly. The countywide issue was first identified after 6 a.m. on Tuesday, not long after the polls opened across the state.
The paper ballots were placed in secure emergency bags for later counting, and citizens can continue casting ballots as officials work to resolve the problem. Voters may be waiting longer at their polling locations because of the issue.
Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins said officials were concerned that the voting machines had been tampered with, but after further investigation, it was determined that the issue was with the printing of the paper ballots and not the actual machines.
Jenkins said in a press conference that no new machines will be taken to any of the polling sites.
Instead, the handicap accessible machines at each polling site will be reprogrammed to read the barcodes on the paper ballots.
In the meantime, ballots are being treated as emergency ballots and "every eligible voter will have the opportunity to cast their ballot."
Jenkins said the issue had nothing to do with the thickness of the paper ballots, as some had previously reported.
He said the reason they did not have this same issue with early voting is that ballots are printed on-site for voters who go early, whereas general election ballots are pre-printed.
Earlier in the afternoon, Jenkins said in a statement that he had directed county officials, including law enforcement, to monitor the voting at polling locations across the district.
"Once these issues are resolved, I will convene a bipartisan team to conduct a thorough review of the decisions and failures that led to this debacle, determine where accountability lies, and ensure that this never happens again," the statement said. "Westchester County voters deserve a fair, secure and seamless election process. Today, we have fallen short of that standard. The voters deserve better, and I intend to make sure they get it."
