Ballot scanning issues in Westchester County persist

We begin in Westchester County tonight where a barcode issue led to major problems scanning ballots right as the polls opened this morning. Fox's Arthur Chien has more on how votes are now being counted over there. Arthur. Yeah Natasha let's just show you there have been waves of people coming in to vote and as we pan to the right there when they're done voting normally they go to a scanning machine but tonight they have been instructed to go over to this table over here where you're going to see people holding their ballots that are in line and And they're going to have their ballots placed Inside an orange bag that that woman is holding over here. They noticed they had a voting problem here as soon as poll locations opened at 6 o'clock this morning. As soon as the first ballots were ready to be scanned, they noticed that the scanners were unable to recognize completed Election Day ballots. Now, this seems to stem from a program update. According to the State Board of Elections officials, They say the possible cause itself may be a change in a single race and an unnamed Named at this point, Westchester Municipality. So the update was not made in any other parts of the county or any other parts of New York State. Now, at first, officials tried to restore the ability to scan ballots, at least giving one counting machine at every polling location. But it's obvious that's not what's happening here at Yonkers Family School 32. They are still putting paper ballots in orange bags, and that's been the case all day long. The ballots are going to be placed in that designated emergency bag, which is orange. Those bags or bins are secured. They are remaining monitored. Those ballots will be subsequently counted in accordance with applicable election procedures. And this is how it's going to happen now. According to those procedures, at 9 p.m. when polls close across New York State, including here in Yonkers, those orange bags will be transported by police escort to a central location where the Board of Elections will scan them in and with lawyers from both campaigns present. Now, the 17th District, we have been telling you, is a very important race, a key race that could determine the balance of power in Washington. Everybody is justifiably frustrated, not the least of which I'm sure Kate and myself. We've put a lot of work into this campaign and obviously we want to get results tonight and we want to make sure every vote is counted. I have confidence that every ballot is going to be counted as cast. And look, I just voted myself, right? Like we're adapting, we're overcoming. But at the end of the day, the most important thing is for folks to not be dissuaded. Right. And that's the message today. But the Westchester County executive very clear today that a bipartisan investigation will be launched to get to the bottom of what caused this, in his word, debacle. Natasha. Arthur, will this problem delay when we're going to get the results in that critical 17th district? And is there anything officials want to make sure the voters up there know? Sure. This will, it appears, delay the results that come back because they will have to be tallied after 9 o'clock and brought to that location to be scanned. But we're told they're going to have 10 scanners. Each of those can process 2,000 ballots per hour. So they have the ability to process 20,000 ballots an hour. So some are hoping that it will be hours and not days or even longer. As for the message to voters, it's clear. Do not be dissuaded if you show up or you've heard there was a problem. Go, make sure you fill out a ballot and put it in the orange bag if necessary. Natasha. All right, Arthur, thank you so much.