Broken Voting Machines and a Dispute About Campaigining on Election Day

In the run-up to this pivotal election we have heard so much about the potential for fraud and the disenfranchisement of voters. Though many are concerned about the security of the election in other states, most of us assumed that voting in our small Village would be routine.

However, this was not the case on election morning at three Scarsdale polling sites where broken voting machines and a dispute over signs disrupted the vote.

What happened? At the Heathcote School a voter reported that he showed up to vote just after 6 am, the voting machine for his district was broken. (There are four districts in Heathcote and just one machine was broken.)

Eric Schnipper said, “A staff member stated that he was going to report it but had no idea when the Board of Elections would arrive to repair the machines. They went into election day knowing that one of the machines was broken but were surprised that the other machine was broken as well. When I initially voted by affidavit my ballot was placed on the floor and when I protested the lack of security of this ("We have to put it there for now so we can process other voters") it was then placed in an intended envelope which the staff did not seem to know how to open initially. The level of unpreparedness for an event such as this was astounding and I felt disenfranchised.”

Schnipper continued, “I reported this online and have already spoken to someone from the NY State Attorney General's office. Additionally, this story has been picked up by multiple sources on X/Twitter and has been widely disseminated.”

A Quaker Ridge woman had a similar experience. Though the voting machines were initially working, when she went to cast her vote at 8:40 am the voting machine for her district, which is one of two districts, was also broken.

What to do? She was told to fold her ballot and put it into a red bag that would be sealed and brought to the Board of Elections to be tabulated. She left there with the uneasy feeling that her vote would not counted.

There were also reports that one of the two voting machines at the Edgewood School was broken on election day morning.

By 10:30 am the machines had been fixed. It should be noted that the voting machines are supplied by the Westchester County Board of elections who runs the election, not the Village of Scarsdale.

Advocacy

Problems have also emerged with advocates for Proposition 1 who were disseminating literature and speaking to voters outside the polls. NYS law permits signs at polling places if they are 100 feet from the door.

Th school district received a complaint about the advocates near the Heathcote School and the Superintendent was called. Citing a policy that bars advertising near the schools during school hours Superintendent Andrew Patrick said they would have to leave the property.

The question is, when school is not in session and the school is serving as a polling place, do school rules prevail for political activity?