Ballot scanners across Westchester County stopped accepting ballots on Election Day, forcing poll workers onto emergency procedures in a county that includes part of one of the most closely watched House races in the country.

County Executive Ken Jenkins described "a county-wide issue at all of the polling locations" in a video statement released around 10 a.m., NBC New York reported. Problems surfaced in New Rochelle, North Salem and Ossining.

The paper was not to blame. The Westchester County Board of Elections first pointed to the thickness of the ballots, then issued a correction less than an hour later, according to NBC New York. The New York State Board of Elections later traced the failure to a change affecting a contest in a single municipality, made after the county's Election Day equipment had already been prepared and tested, ABC7 New York reported. That change required an update to the county's election programming.

Voting never stopped. Ballots that could not be scanned went into orange emergency ballot bags, which the county said would remain secure and monitored. By Tuesday afternoon, one reprogrammed scanner at each polling place had begun coming online, Jenkins said, according to Gothamist.

The bagged ballots will be run through 10 machines set up at the county Board of Elections headquarters, which can process 2,000 ballots an hour. Officials said those ballots would be counted Tuesday night under standard procedures.

The stakes are high. Parts of Westchester fall within New York's 17th Congressional District, where Republican Rep. Mike Lawler faces Democrat Cait Conley. Lawler posted that every ballot scanner in the county had a problem, Daily Voice reported. Both candidates urged voters not to leave their polling places.

State officials weighed in as well. Gov. Kathy Hochul acknowledged a "glitch" but said voters should have confidence in the process, the Times Union reported. Attorney General Letitia James said her office was monitoring the situation and was in contact with state and county election officials.

Polls in New York close at 9 p.m. It was not immediately clear whether the scanner failure would slow the county's count. Voters with questions can call the Election Protection hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE.