The games begin? Ballot scanners go down across Westchester in NY-17, the most contested race in New York. We're watching

This is not supposed to happen, and it happened in the one county that can swing the closest House race in New York. When polls opened at 6 a.m., ballot scanners at polling places across Westchester County started rejecting ballots, CBS New York, News 12 and ABC7 report. Westchester is the Democratic-leaning part of NY-17, where Republican Rep. Mike Lawler is defending his seat against Democrat Cait Conley.

What voters are being told: stay in line, fill out the paper ballot, and poll workers put it in a sealed orange emergency ballot bag. The bags go to the Board of Elections tonight and are counted after polls close at 9 p.m., News 12 and ABC7 report. "None of the three machines here will accept the voter's completed ballots," an Irvington poll worker wrote on X.

The explanation has changed three times. At 8:16 a.m. the county Board of Elections blamed the "thickness" of the paper ballots, then deleted that word 21 minutes later, Mahopac News reports. Later it pointed to a printing issue, according to ABC7. By the afternoon the New York State Board of Elections gave a third answer: a contest changed in one municipality after the machines were prepared and tested, the county's programming had to be updated, and scanners still running the old programming could not recognize the ballots, spokeswoman Kathleen McGrath told The Journal News. She said no votes were miscounted and the state is sending replacement programming, with the goal of getting at least one working scanner at every polling site. One machine was back on in Tarrytown, County Executive Ken Jenkins said, according to ABC7.

Jenkins, a Democrat, called it "unacceptable" and a "debacle," and said he will convene a bipartisan review "to determine where accountability lies." He said the machines were not hacked. Lawler told voters "DO NOT LEAVE YOUR POLLING PLACE UNTIL YOU VOTE," and said his campaign was "already in court" to have the bagged ballots counted in one central location where his campaign, monitors and lawyers can watch. Conley also urged voters to stay and said every vote will be counted.

The Rockland and Putnam boards of elections, which cover the rest of NY-17, reported no machine problems, News 12 reports. The state board said it had found no similar problems anywhere else in New York as of the afternoon. Nobody official is alleging fraud. But a countywide failure on Election Day, in a seat that could decide the House, with three different explanations by early afternoon, is exactly the kind of thing worth watching closely through the count.

Update, Nov. 3 (afternoon): Lawler, speaking in Pearl River, said both campaigns, both parties and the national committees are now working with the county and state boards of elections. ADA-compliant machines that can scan ballots are being set up at every Westchester polling place. After polls close at 9 p.m., the orange bags of unscanned ballots will be taken unopened, under police escort, to the Board of Elections and counted there with lawyers for both campaigns in the room. Expect Westchester's results, and possibly the call in NY-17, to come in late.