Polling site malfunctions occur in multiple counties
CAPITAL REGION, NY (WRGB) — Malfunctions at polling sites affected multiple counties in the capital region as the General Election arrived.
Seven towns in Washington County were affected by ballots that were not able to be scanned in the voting machines due to a printing error.
Board of Election officials are still trying to figure out how it happened but say it will not have an effect on their ability to get ballots counted.
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“ It was a misprint of something on the ballot,” said Republican Commissioner Tom Rogers. It was either how the ballot was printed or it might've been cockeyed a little bit in the print so that it wasn’t running straight when I got printed.”
County BOE officials say this had never happened before; adding they completed all necessary testing in mid-October with no issues.
Democratic Commissioner for the county Jeff Curtis shared a statement with CBS6 regarding the issue and voters' concerns over their ballots.
“Yes there was an issue with the paper from the vendor and the timing marks on the ballot were too close to the edge of the paper so the voting machine would not read the ballot. All new ballots have been printed and delivered and are up and running fine.”
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Curtis went on to say all ballots will be counted; the ballots with errors were put into an emergency bin and non-partisan poll inspectors will handle them to ensure they’re counted properly.
Voters CBS6 spoke with said they were made aware of the issue when entering the poll site.
“ Mine went through and I was thinking please don’t let mine get stuck in a machine or anything because I don’t want it to have to because I don’t want it to have to redo it all over again like all these other people,” said voter Joann Hackett.
While mistakes happen, Hackett said she appreciated the transparency. “I’m glad they were open and honest about it and not like trying to hide any and not trying to hide anything because we don’t need any more election debacles.”
Washington County was not the only one to see issues.
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In Albany County at the Midway 2 Fire Department polling site in Colonie a malfunction in a voting machine prevented ballots from being read.
Albany County BOE officials say that machine had to be replaced.
Washington County officials say they’ve been in communication over the ballot malfunction with the New York State Board of Elections and the county executive.
