Election Day did not go off without a glitch as some New Yorkers experienced issues at the polls that could have prevented them from casting their votes.
Broken scanners, voided ballots and other debacles plagued polling sites throughout Queens on Tuesday morning, leaving registered voters frustrated and in the dark about whether or not they had successfully exercised their right to vote.
The concern was in high gear at P.S. 164 in Flushing, as voters saw poll workers scrambling to fix issues that seemed to result in votes getting voided.
A video on X shows poll workers organizing ballots in a “voided” pile.
In the video, a poll worker holding a pile of votes is heard saying to his colleague, “Put them in a voided, a voided…what do you call that?”
Ballots being voided at PS164 in Queens because of Scanner Issues#nycvotes #queensvotes #electionday @JCColtin @emilyngo @_rebeccaclewis @TweetBenMax@lizkimtweets @skrichev13 @petersterne @QueensTrib@errollouis @brigidbergin @bern_hogan@GloriaPazmino @ZachReports pic.twitter.com/25a4XGlC8x
— RIDESTHEQ46 (@ridestheq46) November 5, 2024
But Vincent Ignizio, deputy executive director of the NYC Board of Elections, explained that a voided ballot means a poll worker gives a voter another ballot for a variety of reasons — but they are not voting twice.
“You can do it up to three times,” he told amNewYork Metro. “If they made a mistake, if they ripped it, if they did anything like that. That ballot could be voided and put in what’s called the voided bin and a person can get an additional ballot. It doesn’t count twice.”
Queens was hit with other voting process issues as well.
One New Yorker said voting machines at P.S./I.S. 113 in Glendale were down as of 10 a.m. on Election Day.
“The voting machines at P.S/I.S. 113 are not scanning and the Board of Elections NYC workers are not shredding the ballots that won’t take,” she posted on X. “That is not good. Fix it now.
Margaret Cuffe reported that four scanning devices at her polling place, P.S. 88 in Ridgewood, malfunctioned when she went to vote just after 9 a.m. Tuesday morning. For some voters, it took up to 20 minutes for the two-page, double-sided ballots to be scanned — if at all.
“It took me 10 attempts on one ballot, the other went through in five minutes,” Cuffe said. “I felt pretty lucky compared to some of the other people. Everyone is having issues with those machines.”
According to Cuffe, a few voters were so frustrated with the failed scanning efforts that they handed their ballots back to workers and walked out.
Ignizio explained that the problems were the result of “a technical issue.”
“We dispatched our techs, and they corrected it, and no voters were impacted,” Ignizio explained. “Voting wasn’t impacted.”
Ignizio added that the Board of Elections remains ready all day to address future problems that could arise until polls close at 9 p.m.
Meanwhile, New Yorkers still hope the voting process runs smoothly the rest of the day.
Howard Schoenfeld of Flushing has not encountered problems himself but said it is important that the election process works correctly.
He was especially appalled at the video of poll workers possibly voiding ballots.
“Seeing that it appears all over Queens, someone at the Board of Elections needs to take responsibility for this,” he said. “It’s totally unacceptable for ballots to be voided and many people’s votes might not count.”
Schoenfield said he had already voted by mail weeks ago.
“People took time out of their day to vote, the least the Board of Elections could do is make sure their votes are counted,” he said.
