Ballot machine malfunction in Queens – Queens Daily Eagle

By Jacob Kaye

Tensions were high and lines were long at polling stations across Queens as ballot scanners spit out ballots to people hoping to cast a vote in Tuesday's election.

Ballot scanning machines from Douglaston to Astoria appeared to be malfunctioning throughout the morning as polling place managers struggled to keep up with demand from frustrated voters.

Some voters told the Eagle they had to run their two-page ballot through a machine nearly two dozen times before it finally displayed a message saying their vote had been counted. Others said they were asked by polling place workers to put their ballots in a mailbox and trust that their ballots would be counted later in the day.

With long lines forming at polling stations due to the finicky machines, some polling station workers encouraged voters to return later in the day to cast their votes, but did not promise the problem would be resolved by then.

Some polling station managers speculated that the scanners were not properly calibrated to the size of the ballots, while others said the problems were due to a poor Wi-Fi connection.

While the Board of Elections attempted to reassure voters that “every ballot cast will be counted,” it did not specify what exactly caused the machines to malfunction or why it was specific to Queens.

“Today we were informed that scanners at some polling locations in Queens required multiple attempts to scan a ballot,” the BOE said in a statement. “Technicians were dispatched immediately and corrective measures were taken. Out of an abundance of caution, we have inspected all 290 locations in Queens.”

“Voters are voting and have been voting all day,” the statement continued. “Voters were not affected, aside from additional attempts to scan their ballots or place them in the emergency bin per protocol.”

Judy Ausuebel, a voter in Forest Hills, said she waited at PS 303 for over an hour to cast her vote.

Ausuebel was initially told she had to drop off her ballot in a mailbox, but when she got to the front of the line, she was directed to a scanner. After running the ballot several times, the machine appeared to have counted her vote.

“I asked the poll worker (if my vote was counted) and she told me, 'If the clock (symbol) goes around, that means the ballot was counted,'” Ausuebel said.

But after an hour of watching the commotion of the machines, Ausuebel said she was “not really” satisfied with the poll worker's assurances.

Melanie La Rocca, the former commissioner of the city's public works department, saw similar problems at her polling place in Queens.

While La Rocca said the problem was little more than an inconvenience, she added that it is “not a good picture and it is not a good practice either that we have problems with the vote.”

“This should go as smoothly as possible,” she said.

Anger over the machines was perhaps at its highest at PS 164 in Kew Gardens Hills. There, around 20 ballots were set aside after being rejected by the scanners. There were allegations that the ballot papers were being declared invalid.

While a polling station employee told the Eagle that the ballots would not be counted, a BOE representative and the area's local state legislator, Sam Berger, who was on site, disputed the claim.

Still, Berger noted that the confusion is concerning.

“There has to be accountability here, no one should ever have to worry about whether their vote will be counted,” he said.

By midday, all scanners in PS 164 appeared to be working properly.

Calvin Christopher, a voter who encountered loose conditions locally, said that while the scanner issue sounded frustrating, he wasn't concerned it would have any impact on the election.

“Machines break and things happen,” he said.

Additional reporting by Ryan Schwach