High number of write-in votes reportedly causing voting machine bin overflows and other issues. [Updated]
Poll workers are in some cases being forced to remove write-in ballots and store them in special bags, multiple sources tell the Chronicle. Updated with comment from election official in White Plains.
The Chronicle has been receiving multiple reports that the special bins in voting machines designed to segregate ballots with write-in votes for later counting are filling up so fast that the machines have been jamming. Poll workers are placing the overflow ballots into orange security bags or auxiliary voting machines, according to witnesses.
The reports come from several eyewitnesses from at least two voting stations, at the Harmon Firehouse and the Lutheran Church, who have talked to the Chronicle directly. Anyone observing or experiencing these issues should contact the Chronicle by email or using the comments tab below.
TheCrotonChronicle@gmail.com
We will begin our own canvass of the polling stations in Croton shortly. We will also be contacting election officials to ask why this situation was not anticipated given the advance knowledge that a significant write-in campaign had been mounted in the village.
Update from election officials in White Plains:
We received a quick response to our queries from Tara Soler, an official at the Westchester County Board of Elections:
“Our office has not received any reports as of this time. We will follow up and check in with our polling sites in the Village of Croton on Hudson to determine if there are any issues with the write-in votes in the ballot boxes. If the ballot boxes do become full, then a bipartisan team from our office would be dispatched to the site to remove them from the machine, place them in a security bag, and deliver to our warehouse.”
Update: Between about 4:30 pm and 6 pm this evening the Chronicle visited all five Croton-based polling stations and talked to poll workers. Here is what we were told.
Lutheran Church: Problems began at 9 am this morning. A special bin for write-in votes in the voting machine overflowed and jammed after 70 write-ins were cast; a second machine jammed after 100 write-ins. A technician came and then had to come again. For more than an hour no one could vote on those machines and ballots had to be put in bags.
Harmon Firehouse: Problems began at 6:45 am this morning. Machines repeatedly jammed and technicians were called to fix them.
Grand Street Firehouse: A poll worker explained to us that the bins for write-in votes are tall and narrow, which explains why they so easily jam when overfilled. When that happened, poll workers are not allowed to open the machine and have to await a technician who takes out the ballots and puts them in a bag. All three machines at this location jammed earlier in the day. Things seemed better later although the ballot of a write-in voter jammed while the Chronicle was there.
Municipal Building on Van Wyck Street: Poll workers told the Chronicle that there had been no problems all day.
Croton-Harmon High School: Only very limited problems involving three ballots, poll workers told us.
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I just give a thanks to all the poll workers for their dedication and hard work. I am sure they are doing their best to insure a fair election.
At least today the poll workers are able to open the tabulation machine and remove the ballots. Back in the day the machine was locked and the workers did not have a key. We were supposed to call White Plains and ask for a tech to come and help but they almost always arrived almost at the end of the voting day. I saw that the tabulating machine is a new model this year but obviously still the same inside.