Two problems on Election Day are confirmed so far, and neither is a verdict on the whole country. Ballot scanners across Westchester County, New York, began rejecting ballots when polls opened at 7 a.m., and flooding moved polling places in seven Florida counties. Voting continued in both.
No outlet or election official has reported a pattern of problems aimed at Black voters today. Voting-rights groups built their Tuesday operations around Black voters anyway, because of what has happened before. “Given our history of ensuring that Black people especially are protected at the polls, I just want to make sure that folks know that LDF and other organizations are prepared to make sure that folks are voting safely,” Emahunn Campbell, assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said ahead of the vote.
Here is what is confirmed.
In Westchester, the county Board of Elections said an issue with the thickness of the paper ballots kept scanners from accepting them. Voters were told to stay in line and put their ballots in orange emergency bags, which are monitored and counted. “Every ballot cast will still be counted,” the board said. News 12 reported affected sites in Yonkers, White Plains and Montrose. Rockland and Putnam counties reported no machine problems. State Attorney General Letitia James said her office is in contact with election boards and told voters, “Your votes will count.” The reports do not say who was affected by race.
In Florida, Brevard, Highlands, Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties moved polling places after record rain. Brevard’s elections supervisor, Tim Bobanic, said the moves were needed “for the safety and security of our election workers and the voters of Brevard.” Voters in Palm Bay and Melbourne were sent to places including the Joseph N. Davis Community Center and Palm Bay City Hall. The county asks voters to check VoteBrevard.gov first.
Here is what is still a concern. The Justice Department has sent about 1,000 monitors to all 50 states, and the NAACP argued that agents from agencies such as the DEA and the Bureau of Prisons could intimidate Black voters. Judge Reggie Walton denied the NAACP’s request to block the monitors Monday, but ordered that they be unarmed, out of uniform, unable to make arrests, and barred from speaking with voters inside polling places. The DOJ had to file a status report by 7 a.m. Tuesday. We have not seen a confirmed report of a monitor breaking those rules today.
A broken scanner or a moved poll falls on whoever lives in that precinct. Those are the failures that cost votes in Black neighborhoods when nobody is watching, and that is why the watching matters. Westchester’s backup system, a bag that is counted by hand, only works if voters do not give up and go home.
If something goes wrong where you are, stay in line. In Alabama, polls close at 7 p.m. and anyone in line by then must be allowed to vote; check your own state’s closing time. If your name is missing from the roll or you are told you cannot vote, ask for a provisional ballot. Call the Election Protection hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE, or email votemonitor@naacpnet.org. Write down the polling place, the time and what you were told.
In Westchester, the county says the bagged ballots will be counted first, before the machine-cast ballots.
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