A printing error by the Westchester County, New York’s Board of Elections put a single town’s mayoral race on every countywide ballot, causing scanners to reject ballots across the county on Election Day.
According to a senior Republican official with knowledge of the situation, voters in the county’s other municipalities, including Yonkers, received ballots listing a mayoral contest they could not vote in.
Because of that, the official said, the ballot codes did not line up with the scanners, and officials are now working to reprogram machines and decide when to begin counting.
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The problem began when New York moved local races from odd to even years starting this year, but a lawsuit and debate arose over whether the Ardsley mayoral race should be held in 2026 or 2028. A judge ordered it for 2026 a few months ago, so ballots had to be updated.
According to the official, the Westchester County Board of Elections sent the printer the updated ballot with the Ardsley mayoral race as a countywide ballot rather than one limited to that town, and the printer printed the file as submitted.
However, the ballots are larger this year because local races are included, and the official said the codes “are not lining up,” and a race that exists only in one town appeared on ballots elsewhere, the GOP official said.
Ultimately, a non-Ardsley resident voter who tried to scan a ballot at around 6 a.m. had it rejected, as if it were the wrong ballot.
Machines are rejecting ballots “everywhere in Westchester County except for the town of Ardsley,” the official said.
New York election officials are working to resolve the issue through ADA-accessible voting machines, which are easily reprogrammable.
According to the official, they were being tested and reprogrammed to accept the ballots and disregard the count for the single-town mayoral race everywhere except Ardsley.
The county initially said the thickness of the paper ballots was the problem, but later removed that explanation from its statement.
Voters whose ballots cannot be scanned are being told to place them in designated orange emergency ballot bags, which the board said will remain secure and be counted under election procedures.
Ballots collected in the emergency bags will be counted after polls close at 9 p.m., which may cause a delay in final results for local races, including the competitive contest in New York’s 17th Congressional District between Democratic nominee Cait Conley and Republican incumbent Rep. Mike Lawler.
Both candidates called on voters to stay in line amid the technical problems.
Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins, a Democrat, said in a video message that there is “not a need at this point” to extend voting hours.
Mr. Jenkins and Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James have assured voters that every ballot will be counted.
Mr. Jenkins said county officials have been directed to monitor the voting process and ensure that voters can cast their ballots without interference.
Voters are urged to stay in line, cast their ballots and not leave polling locations.
“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,” Mr. Jenkins said in a statement. “Westchester County voters deserve a fair, secure and seamless election process.”
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