NY's Westchester County Removes, Then Changes, Reason for Ballot Box Failure

When voting machines were shut down throughout Westchester County Tuesday as citizens tried to cast their ballots to decide a hotly-contested New York House race, the Board of Elections provided an explanation for the problem, then removed it for a time, then claimed another issue was to blame.

BREAKING: Voting machine problems across Westchester County on Election Day! The culprit: paper ballots that are too thick for the machines to accept. The Board of Elections says ballots will be secure and every vote will be counted. pic.twitter.com/YVVMsUWhLr

— Steven Bognar (@Bogs4NY) November 3, 2026

"The culprit: paper ballots that are too thick for the machines to accept. The Board of Elections says ballots will be secure and every vote will be counted."

A screenshot of the initial statement shows that the county elections board did, indeed, claim that the ballots given to voters were too think for the voting machines:

"The Westchester County Board of Elections (BOE) is aware of an issue involving the thickness of paper ballots that is preventing voting machines from accepting ballots at polling locations throughout the County."

UPDATE on Westchester County voting ... the plot thickens ... or should I say thins out ...

Board of Elections removes "thickness" from its previous statement and now says it "is aware of an issue involving paper ballots that is preventing voting machines from accepting… pic.twitter.com/wqqnjMMRSf

— Steven Bognar (@Bogs4NY) November 3, 2026

"UPDATE on Westchester County voting ... the plot thickens ... or should I say thins out ... Board of Elections removes "thickness" from its previous statement and now says it 'is aware of an issue involving paper ballots that is preventing voting machines from accepting ballots'"

Bloomberg also reported the change – noting that it reached out, but no explanation was provided for the deletion of the county election board's explanation:

"An earlier statement from the Westchester County Board of Elections had said there was a problem with the thickness of the paper ballots, though that explanation was removed in a subsequent update from the officials. The board didn't elaborate on the reason for the change in wording and didn't immediately respond to a request for comment."

New York State Board of Elections releases statement about Westchester County ballot scanning issues pic.twitter.com/6vJTO98vCz

— NY State Board of Elections (@NYSBOE) November 3, 2026

Thus, according to the latest incarnation of the explanation, incompetent programming of the voting machines, not the thickness of the ballots, caused the voting machines to be shut down.